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giorgis 7:31 pm on July 22, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Solo ( 93 )

A short Roleplaying history

A long time ago…
—in a roleplaying game

…I was playing with a group of friends. We played AD&D 2ed (Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Birthright), Shadowrun, Call of Cthulu and Star Wars.

It was the ’90s, we were teenagers, gathering to play once per week.

Time passed, friends changed, TTRPGs were put aside, stored in a warehouse. Computer RPGs and gaming scratched that itch a bit.

More time passed, family came along. CRPGs no longer could scratch the itch, but there simply was no time. I remembered how hard it was to get to play once per week, even with that tight group of friends, even when our only responsibility was to studying for school. But the love for TTRPGs was still there.

One day I stumbled upon a reddit post on solo roleplaying. At first I was sceptical. Then I found a subreddit, blogs from other fellow lonewolves. Solo roleplaying was something that worked, and there were tools designed to enable it.

Finally I decided to give it a go. I pulled my old Star Wars the Roleplaying Game (West End Games) books from the storage, found my dice, got some pen and paper, and journeyed to my first adventure. So this is my blog, where I will talk about all things relevant to solo roleplay gaming from my perspective.
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giorgis 10:29 pm on October 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Solo ( 93 ), Witcher ( 2 )
A Call to Glory S06 – The Witcher

Continuing at the same challenge in the Level 1 dungeon A Call to Glory from TSR’s Dragon Quest, introductory adventure game, I aim to try more of the fantasy RPGs in my collection, this time with The Witcher.

I’ll be using a diverse party of 3 characters from Witcher Easy Mode, the free quickstart. I’ll try to include as many different demihuman races and careers as possible to have a party that can deal with most tasks.

My main issue with this playthrough is the ingrained rulesystem and setting. For goblins and kobolds I’ll be using the Nekker stats, and for orcs and larger, the Ghouls.

The Party

Pregenerated
- Orban Madars, Dwarf Criminal
- Ada of Ban Ard, Human Man at Arms
- Andras the Red, Elf Bard
The Adventure

The heroes have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. The heroes have lived here for many years and think of Torlynn as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.
He asks of the heroes to go explore the old, abandoned, dwarven, iron mine, because strange lights and sounds come from within. They’re to find out if there is something wrong there or if the reports are false.
The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.
The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.

A. Tunnel

Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None

The wind fades away as the heroes move into the mine. A long tunnel leads onward, to the next room.

B. The First Lair

Name Initiative
Orban 8+3=11
Ada 10+7=17
Andras 5+9=14/7
Nek1 5+9=14/15
Nek2 5+8=13

Orban is in front, followed by Ada and Andras. Ada and Andras can’t move until after Orban moves, so they hold their actions, thus the Nekkers move first.

Round 1

Nek1 charge at Orban vs Reposition: 18/23: Orban moves aside.
Ada moves and attacks Fastx2 at Nek2 vs Dodge: 20/18: Hit: Torso: 7 Damage, 25/18: Hit: Torso: Simple Critical (Foreign Object): 11 Damage +3, Nekker is down
Nek2 charge at Ada vs Block (shield): 31C/17: Hit: Torso: Difficult Critical: Sucking Chest Wound: 0 Damage +8
Orban attacks Nek2 vs Dodge: 21/17: Hit: R.Arm: 2 Damage
Andras shoots Nek2: 14F:(No major fumble)/18: Miss

Round 2

Ada attacks Fastx2 at Nek2 vs Dodge: 19/16: Hit: Head: 36: Nek2 is dead.

So the adventure book states that if the heroes have a hard time, give them an extra Kur's Drink potion. This time, I decide as a GM to let them sweat it a bit. I know there's a Kur's drink at the Gnoll Lair. Suffocation causes 3 hits per round damage. Will they make it in the remaining 11 rounds that Ada has to live?

They find a leather armor and a pouch belt.

As the heroes enter the room, they notice a couple of beds. Probably used to be the miners’, but now they have new occupants. The vile creatures jump off and charge at Orban who’s the first to enter the room. He quickly moves aside, giving room for Ada to hack twice at the monster with his battle axe, hitting it at the torso both times, killing it.
This has left his side open to the other nekker, who digs it’s claws deep at the his chest, opening a gaping hole at his lungs.
Orban hits the Nekker with his blade, but he barely wounds it, as Andras tries to get a bow and arrow ready. The sight of blood distracts him and he stops short.
Gasping for air, blood in his throat, Ada of Ban Ard brings his battleaxe down at the nekker’s head, killing the creature. They search the room quickly for anything to help Ada with his condition but they find nothing, so they quickly search onwards not wasting any time.

C. Jagged Cavern

I won’t make a wandering monster check.

Nothing of interest in this narrow cut cavern in the stone. Only the occasional splashing of water driping from the ceiling.

D. Orc Lair

I’ll be using the Ghoul stats for this opponent.
Only Orban and Andras will enter the room. Ada is right outside.

Name Initiative
Orban 8+6=14
Andras 5+9=14
Ghoul 6+5=11

Round 1 (3)

Orban moves and attacks Ghoul vs dodge: 23/11F(No major fumble): Complex Critical: Ruptured Spleen: 5 Damage +5, 21/20: Hit: L.Leg: 2 Damage
Andras shoots Ghoul vs dodge: 17/25: Miss
Ghoul claws Orban vs reposition: 9F(No major fumble)/22: Miss

Round 2 (4)

Orban attacks Ghoul vs dodge: 24/19: Hit: Torso: 5 Damage, 18/19: Miss
Andras shoots Ghoul vs dodge: 16/20: Miss
Ghoul bites Orban vs reposition: 17/16: Hit: R.Arm: 0 Damage, 06/25%: Bleed

Round 3 (5)

Orban attacks Ghoul vs dodge: 22/12: Hit: Complex Critical: Ruptured Spleen: 5 Damage +5, Ghoul is down

As soon as the heroes enter this small room, the stench of rotten meat fills their nostrils. They see a ghoulish figure as they move in to engage. Orban hits it right in the torso, rupturing it’s spleen, and follows with a weak hit to the leg. Andras shoots at it and misses, while Ada stays in the rear, trying to keep his wound closed. The Ghoul claws at Orban, but the dwarf moves aside, and strikes back, hitting the necrophage in the torso. Andras shoots again and misses. The ghoul growls and jumps at Orban, biting his arm, and causing severe bleeding. The dwarf furious hits the ghoul again at the same spot, this time the creature can’t withstand any more wounds, and perishes. The dwarf notices a loose stone slab on the floor. Pushing it aside he finds a bag of gold, probably the treasure belonging to some of the miners.

E. Trapped Room

Orban: Practiced paranoia: 19/18: Detects the trap

A small empty room, with a funny smell. Black ash and soot cover the floors and walls. A steel door with an iron handle sits in the middle of the floor.
As the dwarf tries to open the door he notices a trap mechanism connected to a stem for something to pour out. He prefers to leave this door alone lest he suffers.

F. Gnoll Lair

I’ll be using the Ghoul stats for this opponent.
Only Orban and Andras will enter the room. Ada is right outside.

Name Initiative
Orban 8+10=18
Andras 5+2=7
Ghoul 6+4=10

Round 1 (7)

Orban moves and attacks Ghoul vs dodge: 27C/30C: Miss, 21/34C: Miss
Ghoul claws Orban vs reposition: 21/10F(No major fumble): Hit: Complex Critical: Broken Ribs: 0 Damage +5. 11/30 hits.
Andras shoots Ghoul: 0F/15: You strike one of your allies with a ricochet. Roll location on a random ally within range. Orban: R.Leg: 3 Damage 14/30 hits

Round 2 (8)

Orban attacks Ghoul vs dodge: 19/28C: Miss, 17/23C: Miss
Ghoul bites Orban vs reposition: 20/21: Miss
Andras shoots Ghoul: 29C/16: Difficultt Critical: Torn Stomach: 6 Damage +8

Round 3 (9)

Orban attacks Ghoul vs dodge: 24/14: Complex Critical: Ruptured Spleen: 3 Damage +5, 33C/6F: Deadly Critical: Septic Shock: 3 Damage +10, Ghoul is down.

Orban is at 10 hit points when he drinks Kur’s drink: 20 hit points healed, bleeding stops.
Ada is at 10 hits points when he drinks Kur’s drink: 10 hit points healed, Stabilized.
Ada drinks once more, healing 25 more hit points. He’s at full health and Treated.

The heroes enter a room and a dozen of small insects buzz past them. Biting flies are everywhere. A large ghoul sits in the room, and as he sees them, attacks.
Orban slashes at the creature, but fails to land a hit as it dodges and evades. It claws back at the dwarf, and breaks his ribs. Pain sears through Orban’s body. Andras shoots, but as the two combatants are entangled, his arrow finds Orban’s right leg instead. The dwarf curses at the elf, and misses his next attacks against the ghoul, but manages to avoid it’s bite.
Hoping to redeem himself Andras the Red aims carefully and this time his arrow strikes true, tearing the ghould’s stomach apart. The creature shrieks and Orban finds the opportunity to hit it twice in torso, his poniard rupturing the spleen and tearing the guts sending the ghoul down in septic shock.
Searching the room, they find an invigorating honey-like potion. Andras recognizes it for a potion of healing. Kur’s Drink. They decide to share it between Orban and Ada, and by magic, their wounds heal. Only Ada feels a bit weary, but he can breathe again.

G. Empty Room

Wandering Monster Check: No monster

I decide not to search the pile of dirt in the room.

The heroes go through a rough room like a cave, a small pile of dirt is at one corner of the room. The party moves onward.

H. Broken Room

Orban dodge: 4+8=12/14: Failure: Hit: R.Leg: 6 Damage. 24/30 health.
Ada dodge: 27+10=37/14: Success
Andras dodge: 4+5=9/14: Failure: 18 Damage. 12/30 health.

As the party goes through this large chamber cut from the stone, they notice the walls and ceiling are cracked, and huge chunks of stone have fallen on the floor. Their vibrations cause some more to fall as they pass through, hitting Orban to the leg and Andras to the chest.

I. Narrow Tunnel

Name Initiative
Orban 8+7=15
Ada 10+5=15
Andras 5+3=8
Ghoul 6+1=7

With no room to maneuver, Orban faces off the Ghoul one to one.

Round 1

Orban charges Ghoul vs dodge: 10F(No major fumble)/4F: Hit: Head: 27 Damage: Ghoul is down

The heroes find another narrow tunnel. They go through in a single file, the dwarf in front, the elf in the rear, and the man at arms in the middle. Suddenly the door at the end of the hall swings open, and a foul ghoul, cries out and marches towards them.
Orban charges and finds the ghoul at the head, killing it instantly.

J. The Story Room

I’m not rolling a wandering monsters check since the next room has a major fight.

The heroes enter a large chamber that has been polished smooth. Ancient dwarvish runes are carved into the walls. Orban reads them out aloud. They tell of the story of the digging of the mine and the work that the dwarves did there. Near the end, it mentions that the dwarves found a vein of glowing iron unlike anything they had seen before. They mined this strange ore, which they called eisenmond and found they could make weapons of great magic with it.
As they mined for more eisenmond they discovered some dark and evil secret about the mountain, without saying anything more than that they packed up and left overnight.
The story ends by saying that they left behind a large nugget of eisenmond which glowed brighter than the rest, in the care of someone called the Stone King.
The heroes realize that this is the key to the secret of the mountain, and what Gustovan sent them there to find.

K. The Iron Mine

I don’t feel that Ghouls and Nekkers fit well with the story, so I’m going to place 4 Knockers here, from A Witcher’s Journal.

Name Initiative
Orban 8+8=16
Ada 10+10=20
Andras 5+10=15
Knockers 6+2=8

Round 1

Ada charges at Knocker4 vs reposition: 22/22: Miss
Orban moves and fast attacks Knocker1 vs reposition: 23/17: Hit: L.Leg: 1 Damage, 10F(no major fumble)/16: Miss
Andras shoots Knocker4 vs reposition: 21/17: Hit: R.Leg: 2 Damage
Knocker1 attacks Orban vs reposition: 17/21: Miss
Knocker2 moves and attacks Orban vs reposition: 22/16: Hit: R.Leg: 3 Damage. 21/30 Health
Knocker3 moves and attacks Ada vs block: 15/21: Blocked
Knocker4 attacks Ada vs block: 19/21: Blocked

Round 2

Ada attacks Knocker4 vs reposition: 22/20: Hit: R.Leg: 4 Damage ,18/17: Hit: R.Leg: 4 Damage
Orban attacks Knocker1 vs reposition: 19/33C: Miss, 30C/17: Hit: Difficult Critical: Torn Stomach: 4 Damage +8
Andras shoots Knocker4 vs reposition: 17/17: Miss
Knocker1 attacks Orban vs reposition: 17/22: Miss
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 19/18: Hit: Torso: 0 Damage. 21/30 Health
Knocker3 attacks Ada vs block: 22/11: Complex Critical: Lost 2 Teeth: 2 Damage +5. 38/45 Health
Knocker4 attacks Ada vs block: 19/23: Blocked

Round 3

Ada attacks Knocker4 vs reposition: 15/21: Miss, 15/16: Miss
Orban attacks Knocker1 vs reposition: 21/16: Hit: Head: 10 Damage, 21/15: Hit: R.Leg: 2 Damage
Andras shoots Knocker4 vs reposition: 16/16: Miss
Knocker1 attacks Orban vs reposition: 15/25: Miss
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 15/15: Miss
Knocker3 attacks Ada vs block: 25/19: Hit: L.Arm: 0 Damage
Knocker4 attacks Ada vs block: 16/17: Blocked

Round 4

Ada attacks Knocker4 vs reposition: 24/17: Hit: Simple Critical: Foreign Object: 13 Damage +3, 18/22: Miss
Orban attacks Knocker1 vs reposition: 19/16: Hit: L.Arm: 1 Damage, 7F/21: You damage your weapon severely. Your weapon takes 4points of reliability damage.
Andras shoots Knocker4 vs reposition: 18/21: Miss
Knocker1 attacks Orban vs reposition: 17/18: Miss
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 18/21: Miss
Knocker3 attacks Ada vs block: 21/24: Blocked
Knocker4 attacks Ada vs block: 15/24: Blocked

Round 5

Ada attacks Knocker4 vs reposition: 24/21: Hit: R.Leg: 3 Damage, 18/23: Miss
Orban attacks Knocker1 vs reposition: 23/19: Hit: Torso: 5 Damage, Knocker1 is down, attack vs Knocker2: 9F/20: Your weapon glances off and you are staggered
Andras shoots Knocker4 vs reposition: 17/17: Miss
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 22/19: Hit: L.Leg: 4 Damage. 17/30 Health.
Knocker3 attacks Ada vs block: 13/30C: Blocked
Knocker4 attacks Ada vs block: 20/17: Hit: L.Arm: 0 Damage

Round 6

Ada attacks Knocker4 vs reposition: 22/9: Hit: Difficult Critical: Sucking Chest Wound: 10 Damage +8, Knocker4 is down, attack vs Knocker3: 25/23: Hit: Torso: 10 Damage
Orban attacks Knocker2 vs reposition: 23/11F: Hit: Complex Critical: Broken Ribs: 2 Damage +5, 18/16: Hit: R.Leg: 1 Damage
Andras shoots Knocker3 vs reposition: 16/18: Miss
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 15/17: Miss
Knocker3 attacks Ada vs block: 22/25: Blocked

Round 7

Ada attacks Knocker3 vs reposition: 25/15: Hit: Complex Critical: Broken Ribs: 11 Damage +5, 43C/22: Deadly Critical: Separated Spine/Decapitated: 36 Damage +10, Knocker3 is down
Orban attacks Knocker2 vs reposition: 21/19: Hit: R.Leg: 2 Damage, 21/21: Miss
Andras shoots Knocker2 vs reposition: 17/8F: Hit: Simple Critical: Foreign Object: 3 Damage +3
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 18/21: Miss

Round 8

Ada charges Knocker2 vs reposition: 22/17: Hit: R.Leg: 5 Damage
Orban attacks Knocker2 vs reposition: 34C/19: Hit: Deadly Critical: Septic Shock: 2 Damage +10, 26C/14: Hit: Complex Critical: Sprained Arm: 1 Damage +5
Andras shoots Knocker2 vs reposition: 21/16: Hit: L.Arm: 2 Damage
Knocker2 attacks Orban vs reposition: 3F/22: You are knocked off balance and are staggered.

Round 9

Ada charges Knocker2 vs reposition: 15F/9: Hit: R.Arm: 6 Damage, Knocker2 is down

The heroes enter a vast chamber that is roughly carved and still being worked. Small veins of iron ore still line the walls. Four monsters work the mine, and as they see the party they howl and attack.
As the two sides clash, they fail to hit each other, still trying to read their opponents. Ada charges at two of the knockers, while Orban engages at two others and Andras shoots from the corner of the chamber at them.
Ada hits one of his opponents twice at the leg, and blocks his counterattack with his shield, but the other punches him in the face so hard, that it knocks out two of his teeth. Orban lands a strike at the knockers, slashing at the abdomen, tearing it’s stomach. the creature cries in pain as stomach acids fill it’s guts. Orban manages to avoid both their strikes, while Andras shoots and misses.
They all exchange blows, some hit some miss. Orban’s blade is damaged as it hits the hard floor, but finally, after a series of wounds he brings down his wounded enemy. He tries to hit the other knocker quickly, but he loses his balance and is staggered, and the knocker counterattacks with a hard punch to his leg.
Ada hits the other knocker dead in the chest with his battleaxe, tearing off it’s lungs, and wounds the other assailant as well. His large shield blocks all their attacks.
Andras shoots arrow after arrow, but worrying if he might hit his companions, he prefers to miss any risky shots.
Orban slashes with his poniard at the tough goblinoid, his blade breaking a few ribs. The creature screams and tries to hit back, but Orban evades quickly the attacks.
The fight continues with Ada bringing his axe blade horizontally right where the knocker’s head connects to the rest of the body. The connection is severed and the head flies off to a wild direction, as the body falls to the floor, blood pumping out of it’s major arteries.
The last remaining knocker is ganged up by the heroes who quickly finish him off.
Searching through their opponents belongings, they find a cool silver ring, and a coil of rope. The dwarf takes them both.

L. Tunnel of Death

Orban: Practiced paranoia: 30C/18: Detects the trap, and knows how to avoid it. +2 To Dodge Checks.
Orban dodge: 4+8+2=14/14: Failure: Hit: L.Leg: 7 Damage. 10/30 health.
Ada dodge: 17+10+2=29/14: Success
Andras dodge: 8+5+2=15/14: Success

The heroes enter a smooth and straight tunnel. The floor is marked with the dark stains of dried blood. As they reach the door to the other side, Orban detects a mechanism, that upon opening the door, releases several rocks to their heads. They try to be careful and the elf and the human avoid them, but the dwarf is hit on the leg, and is bruised.

M. Mysterious Fountain

In the center of the room is a stone fountain, carved in the image of a large dragon that coils around itself and sprays water out of its mouth. The water lands in a polished stone pool that has been cut into the floor around the statue. The air is sweet with the smell of fresh water. The heroes drink from the water to quench their thirst, and in a magical way, all their wounds and fatigue disappear.
They look around the room and see that there are no more doors, and it appears to be the end of the mine. But knowing that they haven’t found either the Stone Kind or the large lump of eisenmond, they start searching for a secret door.

Orban awareness: 12/16: Failure
Ada awareness: 0F/16: Fumble
Andras awareness: 27C/16: Success
They find the secret door.
Wandering Monster check: Monster: Ghoul

Name Initiative
Orban 8+6=14/14
Ada 10+8=18
Andras 5+3=8
Ghoul 6+8=14/15

Round 1 (7)

Ada moves and attacks Ghoul: 18/17: Hit: Head: 33 Damage: Ghoul is down

As they find a secret door and open it, a ghoul was lying in wait right behind it. It hisses, but Ada is waiting with his battleaxe. He brings it down on the necrophage’s skull, finishing it off in one swift strike.

N. Sloping Passage

The tunnel has been cut downards at a sharp angle. Walking down is very dangerous, but with the rope, the heroes descend it with great care.

O. The Eisenmond Mine

The heroes finally enter a rough stone chamber, with flakes of a mysterious glowing ore flickering in the walls, floor and ceiling, making the dark walls shimmer like a starry night.
In the center, sitting on a small stone pedestal, is a short statue carved from a single granite block. It depicts a dwarf with a pick and other mining gear, missing it’s head which is tossed in the corner. The head sports a rusty crown, fashioned from iron, The statue’s hands are open and held out as if it was holding something.

Okay, so here’s a puzzle concerning players and not characters, but it can be resolved with Deduction (INT) checks, which I will test.

Orban Deduction: 1F/14: Fail
Ada Deduction: 10/14: Fail
Andras Deduction: 22/14: Success. He finds a secret compartment with two nuggets of eisenmond, that fit perfectly on the eye sockets of the statue’s head.

Orban Deduction: 13/14: Fail
Ada Deduction: 11/14: Fail
Andras Deduction: 14/14: Fail

2nd attempt:
Orban Deduction: 19/14: Success. He considers placing the head back on the statue.

Searching around for secret doors, Andras finds a small compartment in the pedestal that contains two nuggets of eisenmond. His keen senses tell him that they fit perfectly to the head, and he proceeds to place them there.
The party looks at the head. Then Orban decides to re-assemble the statue.
As soon as the statue is assembled, a strange light fills the room. The stone body of the statue glows and the mouth moves slowly. In a voice deep and old as the mountain around, the statue speaks.
It says about how the mine belongs to the dwarves, and how good it is that the heroes have arrived because a great evil has tainted the spirit of the place. The priceless magical stone called the Eisenkern was stolen, and along with it, the power to trap the beast that lives at the heart of the mountain. If the Eisenkern is not returned, that terrible beast will be freed, and a horrible evil will come upon all who dwell in these lands.

Ending the Adventure

The heroes return and report their story to Gustovan, who seems troubled by it. He rewards them and takes thought of the matter.

The System

The Witcher TTRPG is a great mid-crunch system. It seems like a perfect fit for people used to concepts like Hit Points, but want to try something that makes more sense than the abstract concept by the d20 rulesets. The system is skill based and doesn’t need to be balanced in order to avoid being broken.
I liked the critical wounds system, as they can happen quite often, and the hit locations, which when combined can end a fight quickly. I didn’t like the divisions involved in most of the damage calculations. It could become too troublesome to run.
The rules where nicely written with several details in the sidebar, but I found an odd place or two where they could be better explained.
In basic combat, it was nice having different attack (Fast/Strong) and different defend options (Dodge/Block/Reposition/Parry), but ultimately in the defences, it didn’t feel too much like an option during combat, and more like an option during character creation (this one blocks, this one dodges, etc).
There were points where combat felt like dragging, but overall it wasn’t too much.

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

Considering I didn’t have a healer with me, I was lucky to survive the dungeon. If I didn’t know (meta knowledge) about the healing potion, a regular party might have perished (though to make things fair I did go through all the rooms in order of appearance like in all my previous plays). Of course, if I had a Witcher character with me, it would have been a lot easier, but it was nice to pit regular characters in the fight.
I feel like The Witcher is a nice fit for a dungeon crawl, where the hit points mechanics along with the mid-dragging combat speed give room for a party to maneuver. The nice thing is that it doesn’t go without a nice amount of criticals and effects.

Summary

Overall as a unique, d10 system, The Witcher TTRPG is very enjoyable, and has managed to hit a sweet spot between traditional d20 systems, skill based d100 systems, and computer RPGs. This combat based dungeon crawl only showed one part of it’s capabilities, and I’m certain that it has much more to offer in the rest of the RPG aspects, and especially the awesome Witcher setting which I haven’t gotten a chance yet to try out.
Regarding it’s solo capabilties, I’d say it’s possible to be soloed. Bookkeeping can be a chore, as there are many stats and conditions that you have to monitor through combat, but if you keep combatants at a moderate level, it won’t be a problem.
giorgis 9:10 am on October 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: MERP ( 14 ), Solo ( 93 )
A Call to Glory S05 – MERP

Continuing at the same challenge in the Level 1 dungeon A Call to Glory from TSR’s Dragon Quest, introductory adventure game, I could not leave Middle Earth Roleplaying Game out of the testing. Despite having extensively played MERP recently in my In the trollshaws adventure, and despite wanting to try out its modern retroclone Against the Darkmaster (aka VsD), I decided to go again with MERP, mainly for ease of use, having the books in print and everything.
With this playthrough, I’ll have almost completed the d100 fantasy games in my collection.
Middle Earth Roleplaying is a light Rolemaster sibling, using Tolkien’s setting. Iron Crown Enterprises held the IP license for several years and developed many supplements on the setting.

I’ll be using a diverse party of 4 characters. I’ll try to include as many different demihuman races and careers as possible to have a party that can deal with most tasks.

Scrolling through the core rulebook, I found 4 pregenerated characters for the sample adventure, that I’ll be using for this game.

The Party

Pregenerated
- Bali Redhelm, a Dwarf Warrior
- Boffo Northtook, a Hobbit Scout
- Galadhil, a Dunadan Ranger
- Lamalas, a Silvan Elf Mage
The Adventure

The heroes have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. The heroes have lived here for many years and think of Torlynn as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.
He asks of the heroes to go explore the old, abandoned, dwarven, iron mine, because strange lights and sounds come from within. They’re to find out if there is something wrong there or if the reports are false.
The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.

A. Tunnel

Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None

The wind fades away as the heroes move into the mine. A long tunnel leads onward, to the next room.

B. The First Lair

I’ll be using the weak orc stats for the kobold and goblin.

Round 1

Boffo move to attack WOrc1: MM: 67+50=117: 110
Lamalas move to the side of the room
WOrc1 move to attack Lamalas: MM: 39: 60
Worc2 move to attack Bali: MM: 49: 70
Bali move to attack Worc2: MM: 7+5-5=7: 50
Galadhil move to attack Worc2: MM: 88-5=83: 100
Boffo attacks WOrc1: 49+5-14-15+10-25=10: –
WOrc1 attacks Lamalas: 56+35-10-5+60-100=36: –
Worc2 atacks Bali: 32+35-10+70-100=27: –
Bali attacks Worc2: 22+33+15-5-5-25+50-100=-15: –
Galadhil attacks Worc2: 08+15+47-25+100-100=45: –

Round 2

Lamalas prepares Sleep spell
Boffo attacks WOrc1: 60+5-14-15+10-25=21: –
WOrc1 attacks Lamalas: 27+35-10-5=47: –
Worc2 atacks Bali: 76+35-10=101:10A: 43-20=23: Blow to upper leg. +5 hits. Wears leg armor.
Bali attacks Worc2: 05: Fumble: 97: Stumble over an unseen, imaginary, deceased turtle. You are very confused. Stunned 3 rounds.
Galadhil attacks Worc2: 33+15+47-25=70: –

Round 3

Lamalas prepares Sleep spell
Boffo attacks WOrc1: 96+39+5-14-15-15-25=86: 10A: 55-20=35: Thigh strike. +3 hits. If no leg armor: 3 hits per round.
WOrc1 attacks Lamalas: 28+35-10-5=48: –
Worc2 atacks Bali: 35+35-10-19=41: –
Bali stunned
Galadhil attacks Worc2: 39+15+47-25=76: 7 hits

Round 4

Lamalas casts Sleep spell at the Orcs: 59+2=61: -15 RRB
WOrc1 resistance: 60-15=45/50: Failure. WOrc1 sleeps
Worc2 resistance: 81-15=66/50: Success. Worc2 resists
Boffo attacks & moves to WOrc2: 54+5-14-15-25+25=30: –
Worc2 atacks Bali: 18+35-10-19=24: –
Bali stunned
Galadhil attacks Worc2: 47+15+47-25=84: 9A: 49-20=29: Blow to upper leg. +5 hits. If no leg armor: +3 hits & 2 hits/ rnd.

Round 5

Lamalas waits
Boffo attacks WOrc1: 63+5-14-15-25+25=39: –
Worc2 atacks Bali: 75+35-10-19=81: 6 hits
Bali stunned
Galadhil attacks Worc2: 93+15+47-25=130: 23E: 85+20=105: Major abdominal wound. +10 hits. 8 hits per round. -10 to activity. Stunned for 4 rounds.

Bali switches to warhammer and shield.
They find a short sword & a leather armor.

As the heroes enter the room, they notice a couple of beds. Probably used to be the miners’, but now they have new occupants. A couple of goblinoids get up, pick their curved swords and attack.
They face off each other in combat, Bali and Galadhil against one orc, and Boffo and Lamalas against another. The orc hits Bali on the leg, only his armor saving him from bleeding. He’s disoriented and stumbles on flat ground, stunned. Boffo jabs at the other orc in the thigh, while Lamalas prepares a spell, concentrating.
Galadhil delivers a scratching wound to the orc, as the elf mage finally casts his spell. The orc in front of him falls in a deep slumber, but the one fighting off the dwarf still stands.
It growls, shaking off the magic, but receives a sharp cutting strike to the upper leg, by Galadhil’s broadsword. It disregards the profound bleeding wound and hits the stunned dwarf once more, but the chain armor withstands most of the blow. Only for a moment as Galadhil follows up with another slash at the belly. The innards of the orc spill out, and it falls to the floor, dying out, incapacitated.
The heroes dispatch the other spellstruck orc, and search for anything of value. They find a nice set of leather armor, dwarf or hobbit sized, and a sharp short sword.

C. Jagged Cavern

Wandering Monster check: No wandering monster

Nothing of interest in this narrow cut cavern in the stone. Only the occasional splashing of water driping from the ceiling.

D. Orc Lair

I’ll going to be using the medium orc stats for this opponent.
Only Bali and Galadil have entered the room

Round 1

Orc attacks Bali: 44+60-10-25-5=64: 2 hits
Bali attacks Orc: 05+5+58-30=38: –
Galadhil attacks Orc: 56+15+47-30=88: 7A: 89-20=69: Medium thigh wound. +6 hits. 1 hit per round. -10 to activity. Stunned 2 rounds.

Round 2

Orc -1 hit. Orc stunned.
Bali attacks Orc: 66+5+58-30-25=74: 3 hits
Galadhil attacks Orc: 96+82+15+47-30-25=185: 22E: 36+20=56: Minor forearm wound. +4 hits. 2 hits per round. Stunned 1 round.

Round 3

Orc -3 hits. Orc stunned.
Bali attacks Orc: 97+75+5+58-30-25=180: 20E: 56+20=76: Blow breaks bone in leg. +12 hits. -40 to activity. Stunned 2 rounds. Orc is down.

As soon as the heroes enter this small room, the stench of rotten meat fills their nostrils. With their infravision they make out an orc figure as they close in to engage. The orc wears leather armor and carries sword and shield. It attacks Bali, but the dwarf’s heavy armor withstands most of the blow.
The orc parries Bali’s attack, but Galadhil’s blade cut deep in the orc’s thigh. The monster screams in pain, and grabs the bleeding thigh.
Bali hits the stunned orc, but his strike is weak. Galadhil hits the orc to the forearm, causing another bleeding wound. The orc hasn’t had time to react as the two adventurers deliver strike after strike. Finally, the dwarf aims at the orcs leg. The blow breaks its bone. It falls down, incapacitated, unable to react as it bleeds out.
The dwarf notices a loose stone slab on the floor. Pushing it aside he finds a bag of gold, probably spoils belonging to the defeated orc.

E. Trapped Room

Boffo: Perception: 03-37+28= Absolute Failure
Boffo: MM: 43+50=93: 70: Failure: 86-30: 56: Clothing catches on fire. Takes 2 rnds to extinguish. +12 hits. 8 hits per rnd afire. Stunned 1 rnd.

A small empty room, with a funny smell. Black ash and soot cover the floors and walls. A steel door with an iron handle sits in the middle of the floor.
Boffo looks around for traps, but finds none. As the halfling tries to open the door he hears a clicking noise. He’s not fast enough to avoid a jet of greek fire, that hits him and sets him on fire. It takes him awhile to put the flames out, and he escapes with a few burns. At last he opens the trapdoor, but it was just a trap as behind it is only rock.

F. Gnoll Lair

Using strong orc stats.

Round 1

Orc attacks Bali: 44+75-10-25-5=64: 5 hits
Bali attacks Orc: 96+94+5+58-30=223: 22E: 23+20=43: Blow to forearm. +5 hits. If no arm armor, stunned 1 round.
Galadhil attacks Orc: 20+15+47-30=52: 1 hit

Round 2

Orc stunned.
Bali attacks Orc: 01: Fumble: 03-20=-17: Lose your grip. No further activity this round.
Galadhil attacks Orc: 43+15+47-30-38=37: –

Round 3

Orc attacks Bali: 100+31+75-10-25-5=166: 18E: 46+20=66: Medium thigh wound. +6 hits. 1 hit per round. -10 to activity. Stunned 2 rounds.
Bali stunned.
Galadhil attacks Orc: 68+15+47-30=100: 9 hits

Round 4

Orc attacks Galadhil: 80+75-10-25+5=125: 16C: 07: Minor calf wound. 1 hit per round.
Bali stunned.
Galadhil attacks Orc: 68+15+47-30=100: 9 hits

Round 5

Lamalas prepares Sleep spell
Boffo moves to the side of the corridor
Bali disengages
Orc attacks Galadhil: 34+75-10-25+5=79: 5 hits
Galadhil attacks Orc: 04+15+47-30=36: –

Round 6

Lamalas prepares Sleep spell
Boffo waits
Bali bandages himself
Orc attacks Galadhil: 11+75-10-25+5=56: –
Galadhil attacks Orc: 89+15+47-30=121: 13C: 82: Slash weapon arm. +10 hits. 1 hit per round. If no arm armor: muscle and tendon damage, arm useless.

Round 7

Lamalas prepares Sleep spell
Boffo waits
Bali waits
Orc drops shield and takes the scimitar with the left arm
Galadhil attacks Orc: 56+15+47-5=113: 12B: 38-10=28: Blow to upper leg. +5 hits. If no leg armor: +3 hits & 3 hits/ rnd.

Round 8

Orc drops from blood loss.
Lamalas doesn’t cast spell.
Galadhil bandages himself.

They find Kur’s drink.

Bali: 25 hits healed
Galadhil: 25 hits healed
Bali: 30 hits healed

Boffo equips short sword & leather armor.

The heroes enter a room and a dozen of small insects buzz past them. Biting flies are everywhere. A large furred orc is sharpening his scimitar, and as he sees them attacks.
He hits Bali, who strikes back with his warhammer, hitting hard the orc’s forearm, stunning him. Galadhil follows up with a strike, but only the end of the blade hits, barely scratching the wicked beast.
Bali is anxious to get a hit while his opponent is stunned, but he fumbles, losing his grip and has to grip his warhammer again. The orc finds time to recover and counters back with a strong hit, wounding Bali at the thigh. The dwarf can’t do much than grin in pain try to parry his opponent’s blows. Galadhil hits the orc, but only blunt impact hurts the orc, as the chain hauberk dissipates the blow.
With Bali stunned, the orc turns its attention to Galadhil, hitting the ranger’s calf in a low sweeping slashing strike, causing bleeding. Galadhil delivers another hit that can’t get through the chain hauberk.
The dwarf warrior is wounded so the supporting heroes prepare for the worse. They want to try to draw the big orc out. Boffo steps to the side ready to ambush him, while Lamalas prepares another spell, concentrating, as Bali steps outside.
The orc tries to hit Galadhil who parries with his shield, and strikes back, slashing the orc’s weapon arm, rendering it useless and causing profound bleeding.
Despite its predicament, the orc stands strong, and drops its shield and starts fighting with it’s off hand.
Not for long. Galadhil sinks his blade into the orc’s foot, and the creature perishes from blood loss.
Searching the creature, they find an invigorating honey-like potion. Lamalas recognizes it for a potion of healing. Kur’s Drink. Bali takes two strong gulps, and Galadhil another one. Their wounds quickly heal, and they can continue again the quest.
Seeing the dangers they face, Boffo decides to equip himself with the short sword and the leather armor.

G. Empty Room

The heroes go through a rough room like a cave, a small pile of dirt is at one corner of the room. The party moves onward.

H. Broken Room

Hard MM

Round 1

Boffo: 16: 5%
Lamalas: 41+15=56: 30%
Bali: 21: 10%
Galadhil: 88-5=83: 50%

Round 2

Boffo: 30: 10%+5%= 15%
Lamalas: 93+15=108: 80%+30%= 110%
Bali: 43: 10%+20%= 30%
Galadhil: 38-5=33: 10%+50%= 60%

I. Narrow Tunnel

Round 3

Lamalas: Prepare Sleep spell
Boffo: 05-60=-65:F: 23: You slip. 30% Chance of falling. -20 from maneuvers for 2 rounds: 01: Falls.
Bali: 95: 60%+30%= 90%
Galadhil: 25-5=20: 5%+60%=65%
Orc MM to attack Lamalas: 47: 70%
Orc attack Lamalas: 97+73+60-10-100+70=190: 48E: 01+20: Thigh strike, +3 hits. If no leg armor: 3 hits per round. Lamalas is down.

Round 4

Lamalas: +3 hits
Boffo: stands up.
Bali: MM to move inside & attack Orc: 09: 5%+90%: 95%. Didn’t move inside.
Galadhil: MM to move inside & attack Orc: 96+52-5=100%+65%: Moves inside and fights Orc.
Orc MM to move and attack Galadhil: 64: 80%
Orc attack Galadhil: 86+60-10-25+80-100=91: 12B: 88-10=78: Medium thigh wound. +6 hits. 1 hit per round. -10 to activity. Stunned 2 rounds.
Galadhil Stunned

Round 6

Lamalas: +3 hits
Boffo: 02-01-20=F: 45: You stumble. 45% chance of falling. -30 from maneuvers for 2 rounds. 19: Falls.
Bali: MM for rocks: 66: 40%: Success
Orc attacks Galadhil: 73+60-10-25-21=77: 4A: 17-20=-3: Weak strike yields no extra damage. +0 hits.
Galadhil Stunned.

Round 7

Lamalas: +3 hits
Boffo: stands up
Bali: MM for rocks: 56: 30%: Success
Orc attacks Galadhil: 88+60-10-25=91: 22C(A): 24: Blow to upper leg: +5 hits. If no leg armor: +3 hits & 2 hits/ rnd. Galadhil is down.

Round 8

Lamalas: +3 hits. Lamalas is dead.
Galadhil: +3 hits.
Boffo: 83-30= 53: 20%+15%: 35%
Bali moves 10′ inside.
Orc attacks Bali: 17+60-10-25+10= 52: 0
Bali attacks Orc: 93+58+5-5= 151: 20E: 10+20=30: Blow to side. +4 hits. -40 to activity for 1 round.

Round 9

Galadhil: +3 hits.
Boffo: 28: 10%+35%: 45%
Orc attacks Bali: 100+35+60-10-25+10-40= 130: 26D(B): 98+10=108 & 88: Sever weapon arm. 15 hits per round. Down and unconscious immediately. Shatter knee. +9 hits. -60 to activity. Knocked down and stunned for 3 rounds.

Round 10

Boffo loads sling.
Orc MM to attack Boffo: 26: 10%: 45% remains.

Round 11

Boffo attacks: 06: Fumble: 35: Fumble ammunition. Lose this round. -50 to activity next round. +56
Orc MM to attack Boffo: 26: 10%: 45% remains.

Round 12

Boffo loads sling.
Orc MM to attack Boffo: 83: 50%: reached Boffo.
Orc attacks Boffo: 30+60-40-100+50= 0: –

Round 13

Boffo attacks with short sword: 97+97+80-5+10-14=265: 22E: 16+20=36: Minor chest wound. +3 hits. 1 hit per round. -5 to activity.
Orc attacks Boffo: 39+60-40-5= 54: 0

Round 14

Boffo attacks with short sword: 38-5+10-14=29: –
Orc attacks Boffo: 41+60-40-5= 56: 0

Round 15

Boffo attacks with short sword: 17-5+10-14=8: –
Orc attacks Boffo: 28+60-40-5= 43: 0

Round 16

Boffo attacks with short sword: 98+96+4-5+10-14=189: 22E: 28+20=48: Minor chest wound. +3 hits. 1 hit per round. -5 to activity. Orc is down.

Round 17

Bali is dead

So the adventure book states that if the heroes have a hard time, give them an extra Kur's Drink potion. Right now Bali and Lamalas are dead and Galadhil has lost over 84 hit points (he's at -35, with death at -90). So I suppose healing Boffo won't hurt, but it won't make much of a difference either.

Boffo finds a Kur’s Drink.
Boffo drinks it all: 35 hit points healed.

As the party goes through this large chamber cut from the stone, they notice the walls and ceiling are cracked, and huge chunks of stone have fallen on the floor. Their vibrations cause some more to fall as they pass through, so they walk carefully to attempt to avoid it without harm.
Lamalas is the first to reach the door to the other side, and by the time he opens it, Galadhil is halfway there with Bali and Boffo way back, as falling rocks impede their movement.
Lamalas opens the door, to find a narrow hallway, and duddenly the door at the end of the hall swings open, and a foul orc, lifts its gleaming black axe and marches towards him.
The elf prepares to cast another sleep spell, and Bali closes in to assist, but they both are too late. The orc brings his battle axe down at the elf’s thigh, swinging it with both hands. The strike is so strong that the elf falls incapacitated due to shock, and lies bleeding.
Before Bali has a chance to enter the hallway, Galadhil gets past him and faces the orc one to one. The orc swings his axe low, and hits the ranger again, and again and again. Galadhil can’t react to the successive strikes, and he drops unable to fight longer.
The orc enters the broken room and challenges Bali. The dwarf parries a blow and hits the orc to the side. The orc counters with a swing top down. The axe cuts off the dwarf’s arm, severing it, in an arc that reaches Bali’s knee shattering it. Bali drops immediately, a pool of blood where his hand lies.
The hobbit draws his sling, and tries to shoot at the orc, but fear overcomes him and he fumbles the ammo, losing precious time. By the time the or is upon him, he has no option but to draw his blade.
The orc doesn’t expect much resistance from such a small sized opponent. Boffo uses this to is advantage and fights close with his short sword, where the orc can’t hit easily with his big two handed axe. Boffo manages to avoid all his enemy’s attacks, and stabs the orc twice in the chest. With the final hit, the orc drops. The hobbit notices a vial of the same kind of potion they found before, hanging from the orc’s belt, and snatches it quickly.
Boffo quickly runs to his companions, but there’s no hope for the elf and the dwarf. He stabilizes Galadhil, gulps down his healing potion, and removes his leather armor to walk silently. He will sneak in the shadows to survive if possible.

J. The Story Room

I’m not rolling a wandering monsters check since the next room has a major fight.

Boffo: Read Rune: 31-25: 6: Failure

Boffo Northtook enters a large chamber that has been polished smooth. Ancient dwarvish runes are carved into the walls. He can’t understand a single word that is being said, and moves on to the next room.

K. The Iron Mine

Boffo will attempt to ambush the first orc miner.

Round 0

Boffo: Stalk/Hide (vs Perception): 43+27-5: (Light MM): 80%: He can move 40′
Boffo: Ambush: 06-14+35+10= 57: –

Round 1

Boffo will attempt to Run away to the next room.
Conflicting action between him and the orc he tried to stab: 79+50 vs 74+10: Boffo wins.
Boffo Run: 41+50=91: 100%
Boffo gets into the next room, and reaches the door to the other side.

L. Tunnel of Death

Boffo Perception: 29+28=57+30:+20=107: Near Success: You gain some information on the topic that required the perception roll, and you are aware that you missed something. You may try again after 3 rounds of contemplation.

So Boffo is quite certain the door is trapped, but he can’t attempt to disarm it. He can only open it and hope for the best as the four orcs enter the hallway.

Round 2

Boffo opens the door to the next room.
Deadfall trap triggered. Everyone must make an MM maneuver of 100% or suffer a C Impact critical.
Boffo: 10+50=60:80%: 69: Blast to shield arm. +10 hits. Shield or arm armor destroyed. If none: arm broken and useless, stunned 3 rounds.
Orc1: 18+10=28: 20%: 57: Strike to leg. Knocked down. +8 hits. If no leg armor: stunned 2 rounds.
Orc2: 37+10=47: 30%: 04: Not even a scratch. +0 hits.
Orc3: 40+10=50: 30%: 98: Strike abdomen. +18 hits. Stunned 12 rounds.
Orc4: 50+10=60: 40%: 29: Staggered by strike to side. +10 hits. Stunned 1 round.

Round 3

Boffo: stunned
Orc1: stunned
Orc2 attacks Boffo: 10+35+20-40=25: –
Orc3: stunned
Orc4: stunned

Round 4

Boffo: stunned
Orc1: stunned
Orc2 attacks Boffo: 53+35+20-40=68: –
Orc3: stunned
Orc4: recovers, and takes position behind Orc2

Round 5

Boffo: stunned
Orc1: recovers and takes position behind Orc4
Orc2 attacks Boffo: 35+35+20-40=50: –
Orc3 stunned
Orc4 waits

Round 6

Boffo attack Orc2: 11+10-14-5=2: –
Orc1 waits
Orc2 attacks Boffo: 53+35-40=48: –
Orc3 stunned
Orc4 waits

Round 7

Boffo attack Orc2: 49+10-14-5=40: –
Orc1 waits
Orc2 attacks Boffo: 60+35-40=55: –
Orc3 stunned
Orc4 waits

Round 8

Boffo attack Orc2: 74+10-14-5=65: –
Orc1 waits
Orc2 attacks Boffo: 62+35-40=57: –
Orc3 stunned
Orc4 waits

Round 9

Boffo attack Orc2: 97+60+10-14-5=148: 30E: 70+20: Disemboweled, dies instantly. 25% your weapon is stuck in opponent for 2 rounds: 56: Not stuck.
Orc1 waits
Orc3 stunned
Orc4 attacks Boffo: 91+75-40=126: 23E: 76+20=96: Knocked out for 6 hours with a strike to side of head. +15 hits. If no helm: dies instantly. Boffo dies.
TPK

Silently,Boffo enters a vast chamber that is roughly carved and still being worked. Small veins of iron ore still line the walls. Four orcs work the mine, but the noise of mining covers Boffo’s footsteps, who gains the element of surprise.
He tries to stab an orc from behind with his short sword, but at the last moment, the orc turns around and sees him, foiling his attack, and shouting the alarm.
Boffo escapes at the last moment swiftly and runs forward deeper into the mine into a narrow tunnel, with the four orcs at his trail. It is a smooth and straight tunnel. The floor is marked with the dark stains of dried blood. As Boffo reaches the door to the other side, he tries to do a rushed examination, and although he can’t pinpoint it, he feels like there is a trap mechanism attached. Hearing the shouts of the orcs charging down the hallway, he knows he has no other option but to open the door.
Alas, despite his awareness, a pile of rocks fall upon him and the orcs. His left arm is broken and useless. Some orcs are stunned, but one wasn’t hit by a single stone. He climbs atop the rubble and charges the stunned Boffo who, tries to parry as best as he can.
The two combatants exchange several blows, but neither one is too focused on the fight, still shocked by the noise of the trap. Finally, Boffo finds an opening, his short sword disembowels the orc, killing it instantly, black blood spilling everywhere. But as Boffo is over his downed opponent, the larger orc of the four, brings down his scimitar on his head. The strike to the side of the head is severe even for a Northtook, and the poor hobbit dies.

The System

I’ve played a lot of MERP during my past adventure in the Trollshaws, so I’m quite acquainted with the system. The turn sequence again, leaves a lot to be desired. Every time I need to pause and think who acts first. Also it’s not always intuitive. The best example was the fight with the orc bearing a two handed axe, but because it didn’t wear heavy armor it could attack before most of his opponents. Unless I’m missing something in the rules, which is very possible, since the book suffers similarly to WHFRP1e from layout and rules hidden in several places all over the book.
The enemy’s stats (orcs) could have been better detailed as I was missing several pieces of information that are necessary and I had to make rulings on my own.
Nevertheless combat is interesting and, of course, deadly.

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

MERP is very deadly for dungeon crawling. Without any meta currency to aid the player, a group of 4 diverse classes will soon meet it’s end in a dungeon, unless they head back, recover and enter the dungeon again. A single strike can end a hero, and there’s no easy reviving. It’s truly old-school, and even with high-fantasy healing involved (Kur’s Drink) success is not going to be easy.
A fair bit of luck is going to be needed, and maybe, if we go the old-school way, a few men-at-arms.

Summary

This is a crunchy system with a fair bit of bookkeeping. I love the details, the information and the results. But considering the other d100 systems I’ve played these past days, it comes short. With regards to soloing crunchy d100 systems, Harnmaster was the obvious winner of the family, with Mythras next and the other two old-school games coming up last, but not least. I enjoyed every single one of them, as the narrative feedback was enough to give a detailed combat, and the deadliness made me try to consider different approaches. Maybe I’ll get to try VsD or WHFRP4e in the future, to see how their modern reiterations have tackled some issues, but first I’ll go along with the rest of the (non-d100) games on my list.
giannidowns and giorgis are discussing. Toggle Comments
- giannidowns 8:56 pm on October 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  
  Great fun to read this series as it unfolds. Do you have a list of games you think you’ll run this through? I realize that you may lose interest before you complete the list, but I was curious to read your intentions (didn’t notice it listed in a quick search)
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  - giorgis 10:30 pm on October 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    
    Thank you!
    Yes, I avoided listing the games on purpose, in case I set up expectations that I won’t follow through.
    I don’t have a particular list, but on top, there’s The Witcher and (maybe) Conan 2d20. I am interested in both these systems because they have their own unique mechanics (not d100 or d20). My main concern is that they’re very well ingrained with their respective settings. I’ll have some reading to do beforehand.
    At the bottom of my list are games I’ve played a lot, which are mid to low crunch like Savage Worlds and MiniSix, and I more or less know how they’re going to behave.
    I leave some room in the middle for games that I might have forgotten, and I’m curious to try out.
    
    LikeLike
    - giannidowns 11:02 pm on October 6, 2021 Permalink
      
      I completely understand! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I look forward to the next installment.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
giorgis 6:05 pm on October 2, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: hackmaster, Solo ( 93 )
A Call to Glory S04 – Hackmaster
Continuing at the same challenge in the Level 1 dungeon A Call to Glory from TSR’s Dragon Quest, introductory adventure game, this time using Hackmaster Basic Free.
Hackmaster was sitting on my digital library for a while, asking to be played. I always wondered how the tick-time-count would work. Back in the ’90s I had homebrewed a system using a similar count for funsies, so I’m curious as to what a professional application would look like in practice.

I’ll be using a diverse party of 4 characters. I’ll try to include as many different demihuman races and careers as possible to have a party that can deal with most tasks.

Scrolling through the core rulebook, I found several pregenerated characters, and I chose some typical stereotypes that I’ll be using for this game.

The Party

Pregenerated
- Narvi, Dwarf Fighter
- Gundo, Halfling Thief
- Elemmas, Elf Mage
- Selre, Human Cleric
The Adventure

The heroes have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. The heroes have lived here for many years and think of Torlynn as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.
He asks of the heroes to go explore the old, abandoned, dwarven, iron mine, because strange lights and sounds come from within. They’re to find out if there is something wrong there or if the reports are false.

The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.

Notes: In order to accomodate the Wandering Monster checks, while lacking a turn sequence, I’ll do a check every 10 seconds (out of combat).

A. Tunnel

Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None

The wind fades away as the heroes move into the mine. A long tunnel leads onward, to the next room.

B. The First Lair

Hackmaster has almost all D&D relevant monsters, so I can use both a goblin and a kobold

Name Initiative

Narvi 9

Gundo 8

Elemmas 6

Selre 8

Goblin 11

Kobold 4

I’ll be denoting movement with the ‘>’ arrows, attacks with an ‘X’
Small creatures move one space every 2 seconds
ToP stands for ‘threshold of pain’
1. –
2. –
3. –
4. Kob >
5. –
6. Kob >
7. –
8. Kob >, Kob X Narvi: 17/6: Hit: 2-2: 0 damage
9. Narvi X Kob: 11/21: Near Perfect Defense: 15/5: Hit: 2 Damage to Narvi
  Elemmas >, Elemmas X Kob: 14/8: Hit: 1 Damage
10. Gundo >, Gundo X Kob: 3/8: Miss
  Selre >
11. Selre >
  Gob >
12. Selre >, Selre X Gob: 12/13: Miss
13. Gob X Selre: 17/12: Hit: 5 Damage
14. –
15. Kob X Narvi: 13/12: Hit: 1 Damage
16. Elemmas X Kob: 9/19: Miss
17. –
18. Gundo X Kob: 19/11: Hit: 10 Damage: ToP save: 5/4: Fail: Kob is down
19. Narvi >
  Elemmas >
  Gundo: Coup de grace X Kob
20. Elemmas >
21. Gob X Selre: 13/18: Miss
  Elemmas >, Elemmas X Gob: 4/11: Miss
  Narvi >, Narvi X Gob: 8/13: Miss
22. Gundo kills Kob
23. Gundo >
24. –
25. Selre X Gob: 0/17: Miss
  Gundo X Gob: 18/22: NPD: 9/25: Miss
26. –
27. –
28. Elemmas X Gob: 16/12: Hit: 4 Damage
29. Gob X Selre: 16/11: Hit: 6 Damage
30. –
31. Narvi X Gob: 20/6: Hit: 14 Damage: ToP save: 7/6: Fail: Gob is down
32. Gundo: Coup de grace X Gob
33. –
34. –
35. Gundo kills Gob
They find: leather armor & broad axe

As the heroes enter the room, they notice a couple of beds. Probably used to be the miners’, but now they have new occupants. A couple of goblinoids get up, pick their weapons and attack.
The kobold charges at Narvi, its spear hitting him, but doesn’t get through the leather armor. Narvi hits back, but leaves an opening for the kobold, who quickly takes advantage and score a minor hit to his ribcage. The elf and the halfling surround the kobold, with Elemmas wounding it.
Meanwhile Selre has engaged the goblin, who parries his blow, and hits him back with his curved sword.
The kobold hurts Narvi once more, only to be pierced through by Gundo. The halfling drops the goblin down as he pulls his blade, dipped in black blood. Defenseless, the kobold does nothing as the halfling positions himself right behind him, and executes the creature with a thrust downwards to his spine.
The party of heroes come to the assistance of Selre who parries the goblins blows. After a few failed attempts from the combatants to wound their opponents, Elemmas spills blood with his short sword. Just a second later the goblin wounds Selre who screams in pain. Narvi brings down his axe to the goblin, which falls unconscious, only to be finished off by Gundo.
The heroes search the room and find a nice set of leather armor and a hand axe.

C. Jagged Cavern

Wandering Monster check: No wandering monster

Nothing of interest in this narrow cut cavern in the stone. Only the occasional splashing of water driping from the ceiling.

D. Orc Lair

Name Initiative

Narvi 13

Gundo 4

Elemmas 12

Selre 7

Orc 7
1. –
2. –
3. –
4. Gundo X Orc: 18/8: Hit: 4 Damage
5. –
6. –
7. Orc X Gundo: 20/22: Miss
8. –
9. –
10. –
11. –
  12: Gundo X Orc: 20/6: Hit: 12 Damage: ToP Save: 17/6: Failure: Orc is down
12. Gundo: Coup de grace X Orc
13. –
14. –
15. Gundo kills Orc
As soon as the heroes enter this small room, the stench of rotten meat fills their nostrils. With their infravision they make out an orc figure as they close in to engage.
Gundo, charges swiftly and wounds the orc, who tries to hit back but fails. With another quick strike, the halfling’s longsword pierces the lungs of the orc. It gurgles black blood, and the halfling sends him to the afterlife soon after. Within less than 10 seconds, the entire fight is over.

E. Trapped Room

Gundo: Avoid traps: 7/20: Success

A small empty room, with a funny smell. Black ash and soot cover the floors and walls. A steel door with an iron handle sits in the middle of the floor.
Gundo looks around for traps, but finds none. As the halfling tries to open the door he hears a clicking noise. He’s fast enough to avoid a jet of greek fire, that lets of to his head. Thanking his quick reflexes he opens the trapdoor, but it was just a trap as behind it is only rock.

C. Jagged Cavern

Wandering Monster check: Bugbear

Name Initiative

Narvi 10

Gundo 6

Elemmas 10

Selre 8

Bugbear 4
1. –
2. –
3. –
4. BgB >
5. BgB >, BgB X Gundo: 22/5: Hit: 4 Damage
6. Gundo X BgB: 17/20: Perfect Defense: 10/11: Miss
7. –
8. –
9. –
10. –
11. –
12. –
13. –
14. Gundo X BgB: 4/7: Miss
15. BgB X Gundo: 15/24: Miss
16. –
17. –
18. –
19. –
20. –
21. –
22. Gundo X BgB: 6/12: Miss
23. –
24. –
25. BgB X Gundo: 17/16: Hit: 10 Damage, Knockback
26. –
27. –
28. –
29. –
30. Gundo X BgB: 12/13: Miss
31. –
32. –
33. –
34. –
35. BgB X Gundo: 15/17: Miss
36. –
37. –
38. Gundo X BgB: 17/15: Hit: 5 Damage
39. –
40. –
41. –
42. –
43. –
44. –
45. BgB X Gundo: 11/18: Miss
46. Gundo X BgB: 8/15: Miss
47. –
48. –
49. –
50. –
51. –
52. –
53. –
54. Gundo X BgB: 21/10: Hit: 7 Damage
55. BgB X Gundo: 23/25: Miss
56. –
57. –
58. –
59. –
60. –
61. –
62. Gundo X BgB: 7/11: Miss
63. –
64. –
65. BgB X Gundo: 18/27: NPD: 8/11: Miss
66. –
67. –
68. –
69. –
70. Gundo X BgB: 13/14: Miss
71. –
72. –
73. –
74. –
75. BgB X Gundo: 12/25: Miss
76. –
77. –
78. Gundo X BgB: 19/9: Hit: 8 Damage
79. –
80. –
81. –
82. –
83. –
84. –
85. BgB X Gundo: 24/17: Hit: 9 Damage
86. Gundo X BgB: 19/3: Hit: 3 Damage
87. –
88. –
89. –
90. –
91. –
92. –
93. –
94. Gundo X BgB: 20/16: Hit: 3 Damage
95. BgB X Gundo: 15/17: Miss
96. –
97. –
98. –
99. –
100. –
101. –
102. Gundo X BgB: 13/2: Hit: 7 Damage
103. –
104. –
105. BgB X Gundo: 19/18: Hit: 11 Damage: Gundo is down
106. Narvi >, BgB X Narvi: 20/17: Hit: 19 Damage: ToP save: 20/5: Failure: Narvi is down
107. Elemmas >
  Selre >
108. BgB >, BgB X Elemmas: 23/22: Hit:10 Damage: ToP save: 17/2: Failure: Elemmas is down
109. Selre >, BgB X Selre: 27/11: Hit: 26 Damage: Selre is down
  TPK
As the party checks the small rooms in the narrow jagged corridor, a huge bulking creature appears. They’re all set up in line against it, and cannot take advantage of their numbers. It grows and charges at Gundo. Behind him Narvi, Elemmas and Selre can only watch the fight.
The massive humanoid hits Gundo again and again with its morningstar. The halfling fights back valiantly and wounds it severly, but is no match for the monster. The halfling lasts for more than a minute, but in the end, Gundo falls, and quickly Narvi steps up to take his place. The bugbear’s reach is greater though, and with a quick hit, before Narvi has even got a chance to score a hit, the morningstar smashes his helmet and he’s down. Elemmas considers casting a spell, but it’s too late, as the morningstar is the last thing he sees. Selre ponders fleeing, but he’s no coward. He faces off the bugbear, and a quick blow to the ribcage sends him flying back 5′, dead.
Thus ends the story of the heroes.

The System

So first of all regarding the time-tick-count system. It’s really good on practice, really difficult to solo bookkeep, and there are some cases where there are problems with RAW. For example, because the bugbear was able to finish off it’s opponents one by one, he could attack each and every second. Unless I missed a rule, in the book, there was nothing there to prevent it. In general I found the rules lacking. Both the layout and the explanations felt like they were missing some parts. I don’t know if this has to do with the fact that it’s the Basic (Free) version, but that’s what I have and tested upon.
Combat was okay. On one hand it is a rule system that makes sense mechanically (as opposed to say D&D), but it fails and falls in the Hit Points abstraction trap, and it fails to take advantage of the opposed rolls to generate interesting results. You end up with rolling so many dice, but the results are mostly binary, with exceptions regarding critical hits/defenses/fumbles. It was mostly evident in my fight with the bugbear, where there were a lot of hits that did nothing or close to nothing. No narrative feedback whatsoever.
Explanations on skills, traps, and similar leaves a lot to be desired. Also I found at least two cases where the example provided didn’t fit with the rule described, which made things even more confusing for me.
A nice system, but there is a lot of room for improvement, which seems to have been stagnant considering its age.

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

Hackmaster lends itself nicely to dungeon crawling, even though it lacks a meta luck mechanic or easy healing.
The TPK didn’t happen due to bad dice rolls, or the fact that the bugbear was overpowered for my party. It mainly happened because as a solo player, I could not see the tactical options I had. After my party perished, I sat and wondered what could I have done better, and I realized I could have set a nice trap for the bugbear. The fighter and the mage could have entered the side room, and the halfling could retreat in the corridor. Then they could flank it and take advantage of their numbers, and maybe a nice scorch spell.
The failure lies entirely upon myself here, and it’s a nice opportunity to consider the tactical options provided in a dungeon board.

Summary

I could see a potential new version of Hackmaster working better than this one. I’m glad I took the opportunity to play this out, because now I know how the ticks mechanic works. It’s really interesting, and I think the best part of it is the granular movement which feels more realistic. Melee attacks timing leave a lot to be desired though.
giorgis 5:44 pm on September 30, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Solo ( 93 ), Warhammer ( 15 )
A Call to Glory S03 – Warhammer Fantasy RP1e
Continuing at the same challenge in the Level 1 dungeon A Call to Glory from TSR’s Dragon Quest, introductory adventure game, this time using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game 1st Edition.
I got this through Humble Bundle, and was itching to try it out. I’m an old fan of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, as I was playing the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 4th Edition, back in the ’90s.

I’ll be using a diverse party of 4 characters. I’ll try to include as many different demihuman races and careers as possible to have a party that can deal with most tasks.

Scrolling through the core rulebook, I found 4 pregenerated characters for the sample adventure, that I’ll be using for this game.

The Party

Pregenerated
- Jordi, a Dwarf Trollslayer
- Mellory, a Human Hunter
- Soko, a Halfling Burglar
- Bianka, an Elf Wizard’s Apprentice
The Adventure

The heroes have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. The heroes have lived here for many years and think of Torlynn as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.
He asks of the heroes to go explore the old, abandoned, dwarven, iron mine, because strange lights and sounds come from within. They’re to find out if there is something wrong there or if the reports are false.

The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.

A. Tunnel

Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None
Wandering monster check: None

The wind fades away as the heroes move into the mine. A long tunnel leads onward, to the next room.

B. The First Lair

I’ll be using the lesser goblin for the kobold

Name Initiative

Bianka 68

Soko 50

Lesser Goblin 40

Mellory 37

Goblin 20

Jodri 13

Round 1

LGo Charge (+10) Jodri: 27/35: Hit: Body: 4+3-4= 3 Damage: Jodri: 4/7 Wounds
Mellory vs LGo: 32/30: Miss
Go Charge (+10) Soko: 10/35: Hit: Soko Parry: 08/28: Block: Head: 2-5+3-2= 0 Damage
Jodri vs LGo: 09/42: Hit: Right Leg: 1+6-2= 5 Damage: 0/5 Wounds
Jodri vs LGo: 02/42: Hit: Right Arm: 1+6-2= 5 Damage: +5 Critical Hit: 70: CV 16: LGo is down

Round 2

Bianka vs Go: 18/41: Right Leg: 2+1-3= 0 Damage
Soko vs Go: 30/28: Miss
Mellory vs Go: 01/30: Head: 3+3-3= 3 Damage: 4/7 Wounds
Go vs Soko: 43/25: Miss
Jodri Charge (+10) Go: 97/52: Miss
Jodri vs Go: 39/42: Hit: Left Leg: 1+6-3= 4 Damage: 0/7 Wounds

Round 3

Bianka vs Go: 82/41: Miss
Soko vs Go: 13/28: Right Arm: 2+3-3= 2 Damage: +2 Critical Hit: 56: CV 12: Go is down

Find: Vial of Blessed Water, Leather Armor

As the heroes enter the room, they notice a couple of beds. Probably used to be the miners’, but now they have new occupants. A couple of goblinoids get up, pick their weapons and attack.
The smaller goblin charges at Jodri, its curved sword hitting him, and causing some minor cuts on his tough body. Mellory attacks the creature, but it avoids him.
The bigger goblin charges at Soko, who parries the strike, and manages to avoid getting hurt.
The trollslayer lets of a loud road, and brings down his heavy axe with both hands at the smaller goblin that hurt him. He hits its right side, at the leg, and follows with a strong blow that smashes through the arm and into the chest, caving in one side of the ribcage. The arm is completely destroyed and blood showers Jodri and the goblin, who collapses dying almost instantly from shock and blood loss.
Bianka hacks at the other goblin, but her dagger strike is too weak to cause a wound. Soko jabs at it too, but misses. Mellory attacks the creature, his axe, dealing a blow to its head. The goblin picks out the weakest target, slashing at the halfling, but is too disoriented to land a hit. Jodri charges, his first attack missing by a lot, but his second, hits the goblin’s leg, the creature screaming in pain.
The heroes gang up on the poor creature. First Bianka fails to hit, but the halfling’s short sword hits the right arm. The goblin staring in horror as blood pumps from the mangled stump of the wrist. The goblin’s curved blade drops, the severed hand still clutching it, and the goblin falls unconcsious to the ground.
Searching through the room, the heroes find a vial of blessed water, and a leather armor, perfectly fitting Soko.

C. Jagged Cavern

Nothing of interest in this narrow cut cavern in the stone. Only the occasional splashing of water driping from the ceiling.

D. Orc Lair

Name Initiative

Bianka 68

Soko 50

Mellory 37

Orc 20

Jodri 13

Round 1

Mellory vs Orc: 13/30: Right Arm: 2+3-4= 1 Damage: 6/7 Wounds
Orc vs Mellory: 303/33: Right Arm: 5+3-3= 5 Damage: 1/6 Wounds
Jodri: vs Orc: 25/42: Body: 3+6-4= 5 Damage: 1/7 Wounds
Jodri vs Orc: 100/42: Miss

Round 2

Mellory vs Orc: 02/30: Right Arm: 6 (43) +3-4=5 Damage: +4 Critical Hit: 50: CV 15: Orc is down

As soon as the heroes enter this small room, the stench of rotten meat fills their nostrils. With their infravision they make out an orc figure as they close in to engage.
Mellory lunges at the orc, hitting it’s right arm, and scratching it barely, it hits back, with it’s axe at the ranger’s weapon arm, hurting the ranger. Jodri joins the fight, his battle axe hitting the orc at the chest. The orc is taken aback, for just enough time for Mellory to follow up with another strike at the orc’s right arm. His blow destroy’s the orc’s shoulder joint almost totally – the arm hangs limply, a mass of tattered and puply flesh with protruding fragments of bone. By chance, one of the bone splinters has severed a major artery, and after a fraction of a second the orc collapses, with blood pouting out from the ruins of his shoulder. Death from shock and blood loss is almost instantaneous.
The dwarf notices a loose stone slab on the floor. Pushing it aside he finds a bag of gold, probably spoils belonging to the defeated orc.

E. Trapped Room

Soko: Search: 65/50: Failure to detect
Soko: Avoid traps: 41/50 (+10): Success

A small empty room, with a funny smell. Black ash and soot cover the floors and walls. A steel door with an iron handle sits in the middle of the floor.
Soko looks around for traps, but finds none. As the halfling tries to open the door he hears a clicking noise. He’s fast enough to avoid a jet of greek fire, that lets of to his head. Thanking his quick reflexes he opens the trapdoor, but it was just a trap as behind it is only rock.

F. Gnoll Lair

Using HobGoblin stats

Soko sneak HGo: 04/30 (+10): Success, Ambush

Name Initiative

Bianka 68

Soko 50

Mellory 37

HGo 30

Jodri 13

Round 1

Soko vs HGo: 11/28: Head: 1+3-4= 0 Damage
Jodri vs HGo: 02/42: Right Arm: 3+6-4= 5 Damage: 2/7 Wounds
Jodri vs HGo: 36/42: Body: 2+6-4= 4 Damage: +2 Critical Hit: 24: CV 5: 4 Rounds Stunned, 1 Round only Parry
Mellory: Load short bow

Round 2

Soko vs HGo: 39/28: Miss
Mellory vs HGo: 98/36: Miss
Jodri vs HGo: 87/42: Miss
Jodri vs HGo: 34/42: Body: 3+6-4= 5 Damage: +5 Critical Hit: 65: CV 16: HGo is down

Kur’s Drink Jodri: 6 Wounds Healed, 7/7 Wounds
Kur’s Drink Mellory: 5 Wounds Healed, 6/6 Wounds

Behind a door, the keen sensed Soko, listens to a sharpening noise. He opens the door slowly, and goes first. He heroes enter a room and a dozen of small insects buzz past them. Biting flies are everywhere. A large furred goblin is sharpening his blade, but hasn’t noticed Soko, who sneaks in, and hacks at his head. Startled, the hobgoblin didn’t expect the attack, and Jodri follows through the corridor, hacking at the monster. First he wounds his right arm, but his second strike finds the body. The dwarf’s blow lifts his opponent into the air and then to the ground, stunning him.
Mellory lets off an arrow, but it misses and clangs at the stone floor. In the chaos of the fray, and the tight quarters, the halfling and the dwarf fail to find an opening, but finally the trollslayer, hits the creature, his blow smashing his opponent’s spine and abdomen, tearing muscle and shattering bone so that it falls to the ground in two separate places.
Searching the creature, they find an invigorating honey-like potion. Bianka recognizes it for a potion of healing. Kur’s Drink. Jodri and Mellory drink one sip each, and get back to fighting shape as their wounds close.

G. Empty Room

Wandering monster check: No monster

The heroes go through a rough room like a cave, a small pile of dirt is at one corner of the room. The party moves onward.

H. Broken Room

Soko: Initiative: 64/50: Failure: Damage 1: 4/5 Wounds
Mellory: Initiative: 60/37: Failure: Damage 3: 3/6 Wounds
Jodri: Initiative: 03/23: Success
Bianka: Initiative: 93/58: Failure: Damage 3: 3/6 Wounds

As the party goes through this large chamber cut from the stone, they notice the walls and ceiling are cracked, and huge chunks of stone have fallen on the floor. Their vibrations cause some more to fall as they pass through, hitting Soko, Mellory and Bianka.

I. Narrow Tunnel

Name Initiative

Bianka 68

Soko 50

Mellory 37

Jodri 13

Orc 10

Round 1

Soko vs Orc: 44/28: Miss
Mellory: Load shortbow
Orc vs Soko: 06/33 (+5): Body: 4+6-2= 8 Damage: +6 Critical Hit: 86: CV 14: Soko is down: Fate Point used
Jodri: –
Bianka: –

Round 2

Mellory shoots Orc: 54/36: Miss
Orc vs Mellory: 77/33 (+5): Miss
Jodri: –
Bianka: –

Round 3

Mellory: draw axe
Orc vs Mellory: 27/33 (+5): Body: 3+6-3= 6 Damage: +3 Critical Hit: 42: CV 14: Mellory is down: Fate Point used
Jodri vs Orc: 42/42: Right Arm: 2+6-4= 4 Damage: 3/7 Wounds
Jodri vs Orc: 01/42: Head: 1+6-4= 3 Damage: 0/7 Wounds
Bianka: –

Round 4

Jodri vs Orc: 63/42: Miss
Jodri vs Orc: 63/42: Miss
Orc vs Jodri: 58/33: Miss

Round 5

Jodri vs Orc: 18/42: Right Leg: 3+6-4= 5 Damage: +5 Critical Hit: 33: CV 15: Orc is down

Soko drink Kur’s drink: 5: 5/5 Wounds

They rush in to avoid the falling rocks, and the heroes find another narrow tunnel. By rush, they go through in a single file, without tactics, the halfling in front, followed by the ranger, the dwarf, and the elf in the rear. Suddenly the door at the end of the hall swings open, and a foul orc, lifts its gleaming black axe and marches towards them.
Soko is the first to duel with the orc, the orc avoiding the hit easily, and bringing his axe down at the poor halfling, who falls unconscious to the side, saved by fate. The ranger tries to hit the orc with an arrow, but under stress, he fumbles and misses the greenskined monster who marches on, missing his first strike, but follows with a second one, bringing the ranger down.
Now Jordi, the trollslayer is on one to one combat with the orc. The size of the axes is the same, and the two opponents seem equalled. Jodri delivers two strikes, one at the head and one at the orc’s arm, who fails to hit back successfuly. After another series of carefuly hit where each warrior avoids the other’s hits, finally, Jodri’s axe connects with the orc’s right leg. The blow destroys the orc’s hip joint almost totally – the leg hangs limply, a mass of tattered and puply flesh with protruding fragments of bone. By change, one of the bone splinters has severed a major artery, and after a fraction of a second the orc collapses with blood pouting out from the ruined hip. Death from shock and blood loss is almost instantaneous.
Bianka pours some of the healing potion into the halfling’s mouth who, recovers, while Mellory, stands in the rear, with his bow ready, too wounded to fight in close combat.
Jodri recognizes fine dwarven craftsmanship in the two handed axe, and takes it, to honor his ancestors.

J. The Story Room

I’m not rolling a wandering monsters check since the next room has a major fight.

The heroes enter a large chamber that has been polished smooth. Ancient dwarvish runes are carved into the walls. Jodri reads them out aloud. They tell of the story of the digging of the mine and the work that the dwarves did there. Near the end, it mentions that the dwarves found a vein of glowing iron unlike anything they had seen before. They mined this strange ore, which they called eisenmond and found they could make weapons of great magic with it.
As they mined for more eisenmond they discovered some dark and evil secret about the mountain, without saying anything more than that they packed up and left overnight.
The story ends by saying that they left behind a large nugget of eisenmond which glowed brighter than the rest, in the care of someone called the Stone King.
The heroes realize that this is the key to the secret of the mountain, and what Gustovan sent them there to find.

K. The Iron Mine

Surprise: Monsters surprised, Heroes not surprised

Name Initiative

Bianka 68

Soko 50

LGo 40

Mellory 37

HGo 30

Go 20

Orc 20

Jodri 13

Round 0

Soko charges LGo: 66/28 (+10): Miss
Bianka charges LGo: 29/41 (+10): Left Leg: 2+3-2-3= 0 Damage
Mellory: Loads short bow
Jodri: Moves to engage

Round 1

Soko vs LGo: 27/28: Body: 2+3-3= 2 Damage: 3/5
Bianka vs LGo: 79/41: Miss
LGo vs Soko: 83/25: Miss
Mellory shoot Orc: 80/36: Miss
Go vs Bianka: 16/25: Body: 5+3-3= 5 Damage: +2 Critical Hit: 75: CV 15: Fate Point
Orc vs Jodri: 93/33: Miss
HGo vs Jodri: 38/35: Miss
Jodri vs Orc: 64/47: Miss
Jodri vs HGo: 47/47: Body: 6(98)+7-4= 9 Damage: +2 Critical Hit: 79: CV 15: Orc is down

Round 2

Soko vs LGo: 16/28 (+10): Body: 2+3-3= 2 Damage: 1/5
LGo vs Soko: 98/25: Miss
Mellory: Loads short bow
Go charges Jodri: 22/25 (+10): Right Arm: 1+3-4= 0 Damage
HGo vs Jodri: 27/35: Body: 2+3-4 = 1 Damage: 6/7 Wounds
Jodri vs Go: 66/47: Miss
Jodri vs Go: 57/47: Miss

Round 3

Soko vs LGo: 42/28 (+10): Miss
LGo vs Soko: 77/25: Miss
Mellory shoots Go: 67/36: Miss
Go vs Jodri: 39/25: Miss
HGo vs Jodri: 19/35 (+10): Left Leg: 1+3-4= 0 Damage
Jodri vs Go: 33/47: Right Arm: 4+7-3= 8 Damage: +1 Critical Hit: 36: CV: 4: Drops weapon, Right arm useless
Jodri vs HGo: 38/47: Right Leg: 4+7-4= 7 Damage: 0/7 Wounds

Round 4

Soko vs LGo: 59/28: Miss
LGo vs Soko: 53/25: Miss
Mellory loads short bow
Go: Cool test: 17/18: Success: Picks up sword with Left Arm
HGo vs Jodri: 59/35: Miss
Jodri vs Go: 36/47: Body: 1+7-3= 5 Damage: +5 Critical Hit: 54: CV 15: Go is down
Jodri vs HGo: 96/47: Miss

Round 5

Soko vs LGo: 01/28: Head: 3+3-3= 3 Damage: +2 Critical Hit: 46: CV 9: Can’t act next round, must flee if they can
LGo: Can’t act
Mellory shoots HGo: 73/36: Miss
HGo vs Jodri: 99/35: Miss
Jodri vs HGo: 56/47: Miss
Jodri vs HGo: 09/47: Right Leg: 6(07)+3+7-4: +6 Critical Hit: 55: CV 15: HGo is down

Round 6

Soko vs LGo: 11/25: Head: 4+3-3: +4 Critical Hit: 02: CV 7
Mellory loads short bow
Jodri charges LGo: 68/47 (+10): Miss
Jodri vs LGo: 06/47: Body: 3+7-3: +6 Critical Hit: 66: CV 16: LGo is down

The heroes enter a vast chamber that is roughly carved and still being worked. Small veins of iron ore still line the walls. Four monsters work the mine, but the noise of mining covers the party’s footsteps, who gain the element of surprise.
Soko takes the wall to the right and attacks the smaller goblin along with Bianka, who barely scratches him, as if a magical force prevents them from placing full strength against the creature.
Mellory stands in the rear, to shoot his arrows, while Jodri the trollslayer enters the middle of the room and lets off a cry to taunt the rest of the monsters to attack him.
One of the goblins charges at Bianka, and wounded as is she is, he brings her down.
Soko and the other goblin continue to fight, with the halfling delivering a few cuts and pushing his opponent to the corner of the room.
Mellory shoots an arrow at the orc but misses, and the orc and the hobgoblin gang up on the slayer. He fends them off, and with a swing of his newfound weapon, he strikes the orc at the belly. The orc’s abdominal cavity ruptures, spilling entrails over a wide area. Death is instantaneous.
Soko has the advantage over the goblin, keeping him under his sword strikes, while the goblin charges at Jodri to join the hobgoblin against the bloodied slayer. They barely manage to cause a scratch at the furious dwarf.
Mellory shoots again an arrow and misses, while the dwarf hits the goblin at the weapon arm. The blow strikes the hand, dislocating the wrist, causing the curved blade to drop to the floor, clattering. He then turns around and with a swift slash hits at the hobgoblin’s right leg, but his enemy manages to hold on.
The goblin keeps their cool, and picks up their sword with the left arm, to keep on fighting, but the trollslayer delivers a hit to their belly, spilling their entrails all over as well.
Soko has his opponent down, and finally finds an opening, he hits the goblin at the head, destroying the left eye. Half blind the goblin screams in pain, and can’t react to the halfling’s hits.
Jodri and the hobgoblin exchange more strikes, and the dwarf slayer lands a hit at the hobgoblin’s right leg, destroying the hip joint almost totally, and killing his enemy.
Soko follows with another strike at the goblin, opening a flesh wound at it’s scalp, and blood flows down into the goblin’s only remaining eye. Only for a moment, until Jodri charges at the goblin, with a blow that smashes the goblin in two pieces.
Bianka recovers from her hits, and searching through the goblin, she finds a ring, which she immediately identifies as a magical protection ring. She wears it, in a futile effort to keep herself safe in this dungeon.
Mellory finds a coil of rope, which he takes, in case it ends up being useful in the dungeon.

L. Tunnel of Death

Soko: Search: 48/50: success to detect
Soko: Disarm: 67/34: failure
Soko: Initiative: 73/50 (+10): Failure: 6+4-3= 7 Damage: +2 Critical Hit: 92: CV 15: Fate Point
Jodri: Initiative: 16/23 (+10): Success
Mellory: Initiative: 69/37 (+10): Failure: 5+4-3= 6 Damage: +6 Critical Hit: 61: CV 16: Fate Point
Bianka: Initiative: 69/58 (+10): Failure: 4+4-4= 4 Damage: +4 Critical Hit: 32: CV 13: Fate Point

The heroes enter a smooth and straight tunnel. The floor is marked with the dark stains of dried blood. As they reach the door to the other side, Soko to detects a mechanism, that upon opening the door, releases several rocks to their heads. He tries to disarm it but fails. Only Jodri jumps correctly out of the way, as the rocks fall down on them. The rest should have been dead, but escape unscathed, as fate would have it.

M. Mysterious Fountain

In the center of the room is a stone fountain, carved in the image of a large dragon that coils around itself and sprays water out of its mouth. The water lands in a polished stone pool that has been cut into the floor around the statue. The air is sweet with the smell of fresh water. The heroes drink from the water to quench their thirst, and in a magical way, all their wounds and fatigue disappear.
They look around the room and see that there are no more doors, and it appears to be the end of the mine. But knowing that they haven’t found either the Stone Kind or the large lump of eisenmond, they start searching for a secret door.

Wandering monster check: no wandering monster

Soko: Search: 70/50: Failure
Bianka: Search: 82/58: Failure
Jodri: Search: 68/23: Failure
Mellory: Search: 33/37: Success

They find the secret door.

N. Sloping Passage

The tunnel has been cut downards at a sharp angle. Walking down is very dangerous, but with the rope, the heroes descend it with great care.

O. The Eisenmond Mine

The heroes finally enter a rough stone chamber, with flakes of a mysterious glowing ore flickering in the walls, floor and ceiling, making the dark walls shimmer like a starry night.
In the center, sitting on a small stone pedestal, is a short statue carved from a single granite block. It depicts a dwarf with a pick and other mining gear, missing it’s head which is tossed in the corner. The head sports a rusty crown, fashioned from iron, The statue’s hands are open and held out as if it was holding something.

Okay, so here’s a puzzle concerning players and not characters, but it can be resolved with Int checks, which I will test.

Jodri: Intelligence: 02/54: Success: He finds a secret compartment with two nuggets of eisenmond, that fit perfectly on the eye sockets of the statue’s head.

Jodri: Intelligence: 98/54: Failure
Bianka: Intelligence: 55/46: Failure
Soko: Intelligence: 94/26: Failure
Mellory: Intelligence: 96/27: Failure

2nd attempt:

Jodri: Intelligence: 37/54: Success: He considers placing the head back on the statue.

Searching around for secret doors, Jodri finds a small compartment in the pedestal that contains two nuggets of eisenmond. His keen senses tell him that they fit perfectly to the head, and he proceeds to place them there.
The party looks at the head. Then after thinking the problem, for a while, Jodri decides to re-assemble the statue.
As soon as the statue is assembled, a strange light fills the room. The stone body of the statue glows and the mouth moves slowly. In a voice deep and old as the mountain around, the statue speaks.
It says about how the mine belongs to the dwarves, and how good it is that the heroes have arrived because a great evil has tainted the spirit of the place. The priceless magical stone called the Eisenkern was stolen, and along with it, the power to trap the beast that lives at the heart of the mountain. If the Eisenkern is not returned, that terrible beast will be freed, and a horrible evil will come upon all who dwell in these lands.

Ending the Adventure

The heroes return and report their story to Gustovan, who seems troubled by it. He rewards them and takes thought of the matter.

The System

Rough, deadly, ~~gritty~~ gory. On purpose I left the descriptions of the critical hits, as documented in the core rulebook, so that the reader can decide for themselves.
The game system isn’t polished at all. Rules leave a lot to be desired in terms of descriptions and examples, but it works. In writing this I am also aware of the age of the system.
Overall it feels like there’s not much balancing done and failing at tasks is more often than not, the norm.
But what it shines about is that it’s enjoyable. To hit chance is low in combat, but it takes only a couple hits to bring someone down. Combat mechanics are simple, and even though they suffer from the Naked Dwarf syndrome, they make more sense than their respective D&D rules counterparts.
Political correctness or taking care to not step on any other Intellectual property, is out of the window, but at the same this is a game that doesn’t take itself seriously, unlike how the franchise evolved later on.
It is d100, but not nearly as crunchy as the other games of the same family. It is fast and deadly, but it can easily suffer from series of failed results and “nothing happens” combat rounds.

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

With a fair bit of luck and almost complete expenditure of the party’s Fate Points, we cleared the dungeon (a group of 4 versus 3 in my other runs). To be honest, a normal group would have better turned tail and run after the fight with the orc with the magical axe, but I wanted to see how it would go on no matter what.
I did some wrong calls, and missed a few rules here and there, but nothing too serious.
With proper planning, I believe a party can do some dungeon crawling in WHFRP1E and enjoy it. It’s risky, but manageable.

Summary

From a solo perspective, the system is perfectly soloable regarding bookkeeping and rules. It’s age shows though, and it can take a while to find where a rule is described even with the OCR PDF version.
I’d certainly use WHFRP1e to play an adventure or two in the same setting, but I wouldn’t use it to run something else.
It’s a game that certainly lives to its dark and gritty name.
giorgis 2:10 pm on September 24, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Mythras ( 6 ), Solo ( 93 )
A Call to Glory S02 – Mythras
Continuing at the same challenge in the Level 1 dungeon A Call to Glory from TSR’s Dragon Quest, introductory adventure game, this time using Mythras.
Mythras was Runequest 6, a setting-agnostic version (non Glorantha) of the Runequest RPG systems series. Mainly aimed at Bronze Age/Sword and Sandal settings, it can run pretty much everything as it is a generic system.
Unfortunately I don’t have Classic Fantasy supplement, which brings an OD&D feel to the table, that would be a perfect fit for this adventure, but I do have Mythras Companion that I will be using for it’s Tactical Combat section to run the turn & grid based combat.

I’ll be using a diverse party of 3 characters. I’ll try to include as many different demihuman races and careers as possible to have a party that can deal with most tasks.

I’ll be rolling normally for my characters, but if someone comes up too weak, I’ll reroll from the start. Since I don’t want to waste too much time on character backgrounds and such, I will be using the pyramid skill allocation method from Mythras Companion, to get faster chargen. Also I’ll be quite free when choosing magic spells and combat styles, as I don’t want to spend time in world design.

For the enemies, I’ll be using Mythras Encounter Generator so if something comes up as too unbalanced, it might have to do with the author’s intent.

The Party

I went ahead and uploaded them to Roll20.
- Khari, a Dwarf Warrior
- Malgali, an Elf Sorcerer
- Eanfric, a Human Ranger
The Adventure

The heroes have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. The heroes have lived here for many years and think of Torlynn as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.
He asks of the heroes to go explore the old, abandoned, dwarven, iron mine, because strange lights and sounds come from within. They’re to find out if there is something wrong there or if the reports are false.

The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.

Note: again I have to warn the reader that there are huge mechanics text blocks. Mythras combat is very detailed, so I'm giving the reader an opportunity to read this as an example, or just skip it and jump to the narrative sections.

Some Notes on the Combat System: In Mythras each combatant has an Action Points (AP) pool, reset at the start of each Round, that they can spend to perform Proactive (e.g. Attacking) or Reactive (e.g. Parrying) Actions. Once these are spent, the combatant is at the mercy of the opponent who can attempt to attack unopposed (if they have any remaining APs). In general this is supposed to resolve both the multiple opponents and the multiple attacks mechanisms often found in RPGs. Because having more than 2 APs (the average) can be unbalancing, there’s an optional rule (that I won’t be using) to make APs fixed to 2 for everyone. Each combat Round is divided in Cycles, where each combatant takes Turns, spending their APs, until none remains. I’ll be writing the APs in (parentheses) next to each combatant name prior to them spending one).
Combat resolution is similar to Hârnmaster, with opposed Differential Rolls (compare the Success Levels-SL of each combatant) with some differences. The major differences are the Special Effects-SE (for each SL difference, the combatant gains a Special Effect that they can use) and Hit Locations with their own Hit Points. There’s tons more rules for combat and I hope that I can work them all in the game slowly as I learn, playing both sides.
Also according to Tactical Combat rules, it’s Action first, Move later, which has a very specific aspect in combat.

A. Tunnel

Wandering monster check: None

The wind fades away as the heroes move into the mine. A long tunnel leads onward, to the next room.

B. The First Lair

Name Initiative

Eanfric 17

Malgali 17

Khari 18

Goblin 10

Kobold 14

Round 1 Cycle 1

Khari (3) Moves closer to Kobold
Malgali (2) Prepares to Cast Magic (Wrack)
Eanfric (3) Loads his Shortbow
Kobold (2) Moves to Khari to Engage
Goblin (2) Moves to Eanfric to Engage

Round 1 Cycle 2

Khari (2) attacks Kobold: 68: Success: Kobold (1) Parries: 27: Success: Attack Parried
Malgali (1) Casts Wrack on Kobold: (Intensity 8, Range 1): 16: Success: Hit: Left Arm: Damage: 2: HP: 1/3: Minor Wound (no effect)
Eanfric (2) Shoots his Shortbow to Goblin: 87: Failure
Kobold (0) Takes no action
Goblin (1) attacks Eanfric: 5: Success: Eanfric (1): Parries: 25: Success: Attack Parried

Round 1 Cycle 3

Khari (1) attacks Kobold: 27: Success: SE: Maximize Damage: Hit: Right Leg: Damage: 9: HP: -4: Major Wound: Kobold is down

Round 2 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) Readies Sword & Dagger
Malgali (2) Prepares to Cast Magic (Wrack)
Khari (3) Moves to flank Goblin
Goblin (2) attacks Eanfric: 76: Failure

Round 2 Cycle 2

Khari (2) Delay
Eanfric (2) attacks Goblin: 82: Failure
Malgali (1) Casts Wrack on Goblin: (Intensity 8, Range 1): 18: Success: Hit: Chest: Damage: 6: HP: 0: Serious Wound: Endurance: 6: Success
Khari (2) attacks Goblin: 7: Critical Success: Goblin (1) Parries: 92: Failure: SE: Maximize Damage & Choose Location (Chest): Damage: 9: HP: -8: Major Wound: Goblin is down

As the heroes enter the room, they notice a couple of beds. Probably used to be the miners’, but now they have new occupants. A kobold and a goblin get up, pick their weapons and attack.
Eanfric pulls his bowstring while aiming an arrow at the goblin that closes in on him, his shot misses and the goblin hacks at him, but he uses his bow to parry the attack.
Khari brings his battleaxe towards the kobold, only to be blocked by the monster’s club, while Malgali, unopposed speaks some words in an unknown language, and tendrils of dark energy flash towards the kobold’s left arm, bruising him. Khari follows up on his previous attack, this time unopposed as the kobold isn’t fast enough to stop him. His battle axe strikes with such strength that the kobold’s right leg is hacked off. Blood speweing everywhere, the monster is down, soon to be dead.
Eanfric drops his bow and draws his sword and dagger. Hoping to get a hit on the ranger while he’s still distracted, the goblin attempts to attack, but misses. Eanfric’s attack with the sword fails as well.
Malgali starts chanting again in unknown words, as Khari closes in at the goblin. Malgali’s spell hits the goblin right on the chest. The creature screams in pain as black tendrils bounce along his body. Khari gets the opening he needed and in spite of his opponent’s futile attempt to fight him off, he aims and hacks his opponent’s ribcage. The goblin is dead in a gory display.
The heroes search the room and find a long sword and a belt among the rubble.

Okay a side note here. You’re supposed to draw randomly two equipment cards from the dragon quest equipment deck. This is my second play, and I drew exactly the same two cards as in the first play. Weird odds, just wanted to share.

C. Jagged Cavern

Wandering monster: None

Nothing of interest in this narrow cut cavern in the stone. Only the occasional splashing of water driping from the ceiling.

D. Orc Lair

Name Initiative

Eanfric 22

Malgali 19

Khari 11

Orc 15

Round 1 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) attacks Orc: 62: Success: Orc (2) parries: 62: Failure: SE: Flurry: Hit: Chest: Damage: 0: –
Flurry Eanfric (2) attacks Orc: 3: Critical Success: Orc (1) parries: 41: Success: SE: Bleed: Hit: Chest: Damage: 0: –
Malgali (2) Prepares to Cast Magic (Bypass armor)
Orc (0): No action
Khari (3): attacks Orc: 2: Critical Success: SE: Maximize Damage & Sunder: Hit: Left Arm: Damage: 9: HP: -4: Serious Wound

Round 1 Cycle 2

Eanfric (1) attacks Orc: 89: Failure
Malgali (1) Casts Bypass armor on Khari: 3: Critical Success
Khari (2) attacks Orc: 14: Success: SE: Bleed: Hit: Left Leg: Damage: 9: HP: -3: Serious Wound: Endurance: 19: Fail: Prone

Round 1 Cycle 3

Khari (1) attacks Orc: 47: Success: SE: Choose Location (Left Leg): Hit: Left Leg: Damage: 7: HP: -10: Major Wound: Orc is down

As soon as the heroes enter this small room, the stench of rotten meat fills their nostrils. With their infravision they make out an orc figure as they close in to engage.
Eanfric steps forward and with a flurry of strikes, sword and dagger, he tries to harm the creature, which parries both his attacks. Khari brings his axe to the left arm of his occupied opponent, seriously wounding it. Eanfric tries again to find an oppening, but he can’t.
Malgali casts another spell and this time the magical energies weave themselves around the edge of Khari’s battle axe. Khari attacks again the orc, hacking his left leg, causing severe bleeding to the orc as it falls prone. He follows up with a finishing strike to the leg of his downed opponent, severing it completely, as the creature screams in pain and dies out.
The dwarf notices a loose stone slab on the floor. Pushing it aside he finds a bag of gold, probably spoils belonging to the defeated orc.

E. Trapped Room

Khari: Evade: 19: Success

A small empty room, with a funny smell. Black ash and soot cover the floors and walls. A steel door with an iron handle sits in the middle of the floor.
As the dwarf tries to open the door he hears a clicking noise. He’s fast enough to avoid a jet of greek fire, that lets of to his head. Thanking his quick reflexes he opens the trapdoor, but it was just a trap as behind it is only rock.

F. Gnoll Lair

Name Initiative

Eanfric 13

Malgali 18

Khari 14

Gnoll 14

Round 1 Cycle 1

Malgali (2) Prepares to Cast Magic (Damage Resistance)
Khari (3) attacks Gnoll: 79: Success: Gnoll (2) parries: 64: Failure: SE: Bleed: Hit: Right Leg: Damage: 3(3): HP: 4: Minor Wound
Gnoll (1) attacks Khari: 60: Success: Khari (2) parries: 93: Failure: SE: Bleed: Hit: Head: Damage: 5(0): No damage
Eanfric (3) attacks Gnoll: 8: Critical Success: SE: Impale & Maximize Damage: Hit: Head: Damage: 8(6): HP: 1: Minor Wound

Round 1 Cycle 2

Malgali (1) casts Damage Resistance on shelf
Eanfric (2) tries to pull impaled weapon free: 66: Failure
Khari (1) attacks Gnoll: 85: Failure

Round 1 Cycle 3

Eanfric (1) tries to pull impaled weapon free: 68: Failure

Round 2 Cycle 1

Malgali (2) Dither
Khari (3) attacks Gnoll: 64: Success: Gnoll (2) parries: 67: Failure: SE: Choose location (Head): Damage: 5(5): HP: -4: Endurance: 5: Critical Success
Gnoll (1) attacks Eanfric: 13: Success: Eanfric (3) parries: 44: Success: attack parried
Eanfric (2) tries to pull impaled weapon free: 98: Failure

Round 2 Cycle 2

Malgali (1) Dither
Khari (1) attacks Gnoll: 45: Success: SE: Choose location (Head): Damage: 8(8): HP: -12: Major wound: Gnoll is down

The heroes enter a room and a dozen of small insects buzz past them. Biting flies are everywhere. A large furred gnoll is sharpening his Mangar, and as he sees them attacks.
Malgali starts chanting his magic, in the rear, as Khari enters the fray and strikes the gnoll past his defense, scratching his right leg. The gnoll strikes back, hitting Khari at the head, but the helmet protects him. As the two of them are locked in combat, Eanfric thrusts his sword blade into the head of his opponent, and impales it into the side of his skull. The towering creature is still fighting.
Malgali casts his protective magic, and a vague aura of darkness surrounds him.
Eanfric tries to pull out the blade from this enemy, but it’s stuck, and he fails again and again.
Khari takes a wild swing that misses, but follows up with a hit to his opponents head, as it is an easy target while being locked with Eanfric’s blade. The gnoll whimpers and curses in his language, but withstands the hit. It tries to harm Eanfric, to get him to let go, but he’s too restricted and in pain to be able to do it.
Eanfric still can’t pull out his sword, as Khari puts the creature out of its misery with a decapitating hit on the neck. The gnoll’s head would have flied away if it weren’t still skewered by Eanfric’s blade.
Putting his foot to the head, Eanfric finally frees up the sword.
Searching the creature, they find an invigorating honey-like potion. Malgali recognizes it for a potion of healing. Kur’s Drink. They decide to keep it in case they need it later.

G. Empty Room

Wandering Monster Check: No monster

I decide no to search the pile of dirt in the room.

The heroes go through a rough room like a cave, a small pile of dirt is at one corner of the room. The party moves onward.

H. Broken Room

Khari evade: 11: Success
Eanfric evade: 39: Success
Malgali evade: 8: Success

As the party goes through this large chamber cut from the stone, they notice the walls and ceiling are cracked, and huge chunks of stone have fallen on the floor. Their vibrations cause some more to fall as they pass through, but they avoid it without harm.

I. Narrow Tunnel

Name Initiative

Eanfric 21

Malgali 14

Khari 11

Orc 7

Round 1 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) readies short bow
Malgali (2) Prepares to Cast Magic (Wrack)
Khari (3) delay & move
Orc (2) attacks khari: 21: Success: Khari (3) parries: 24: Success: attack parried

Round 1 Cycle 2

Eanfric (2) readies short bow
Malgali (1) Casts Magic (Wrack): Hit Location: Right Leg: Damage: 7: HP: -1: Serious wound: Endurance: 91: Failure: Orc Prone
Khari (2) attacks Orc: 14: Success: Orc (1) parries: 77: Failure: SE: Bleed: Left Arm: Damage: 9: HP: -4: Serious Wound: Endurance: 40: Success: Left arm useless

Round 1 Cycle 3

Eanfric (1) shoots Orc: 15: Formidable Success: SE: Impale: Right Leg: Damage: 4(1): HP: -2
Khari (2) attacks prone Orc: 1: Critical Success: SE: Maximize Damage & Bleed: Endurance: 73: Failure: Bleeds: Left Arm: Damage: 10: HP: -14: Major wound: Orc is down

The heroes find another narrow tunnel. They go through in a single file, the dwarf in front, the elf in the middle, and the thief in the rear. Suddenly the door at the end of the hall swings open, and a foul orc, lifts its gleaming black axe and marches towards them.
The heroes in single file, Khari in front, followed by Eanfric who readies his bow with an arrow, and Malgali who starts chanting a wracking spell. The orc and Khari meet, and the dwarf parries his enemy’s blow. The dark magic flies away from Malgali’s hands, and hit the orc in the right leg. The supernatural wound and pain is such, that the monster drops prone to the floor. Khari finds the opportunity to strike, and hits it’s left arm, wounding it severly.
Eanfric finds the opening, and in spite of the fray, his arrow is impaled into the same leg. The orc screams in pain, but not for long. Khari follows up with another axe strike at his downed opponent, hacking off his left arm. The orc passes out due to shock, only to bleed out a while later.
Khari takes the black axe of his opponent. The craftsmanship isn’t orcish, and he intends to put it to good use.

J. The Story Room

I’m not rolling a wandering monsters check since the next room has a major fight.

The heroes enter a large chamber that has been polished smooth. Ancient dwarvish runes are carved into the walls. Khari reads them out aloud. They tell of the story of the digging of the mine and the work that the dwarves did there. Near the end, it mentions that the dwarves found a vein of glowing iron unlike anything they had seen before. They mined this strange ore, which they called eisenmond and found they could make weapons of great magic with it.
As they mined for more eisenmond they discovered some dark and evil secret about the mountain, without saying anything more than that they packed up and left overnight.
The story ends by saying that they left behind a large nugget of eisenmond which glowed brighter than the rest, in the care of someone called the Stone King.
The heroes realize that this is the key to the secret of the mountain, and what Gustovan sent them there to find.

K. The Iron Mine

Name Initiative

Eanfric 22

Malgali 19

Khari 19

Goblin 9

Gnoll 8

Kobold 18

Orc 14

Round 1 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) Ready Sword & Dagger
Malgali (2) Prepare Magic (Dullblade-Orc)
Khari (3) Charge Gnoll: 79: Hard Failure
Kobold (2) move to Khari
Orc (2) move to Malgali
Goblin (2) move to Eanfric
Gnoll (2) attack Khari: 61: Success: Khari (2): Parry: 42: Success: Attack parried

Round 1 Cycle 2

Eanfric (2) attacks Goblin: 40: Success: Goblin (1) parries: 56: Failure: SE: Bleed: Hit Location: Right Arm: Damage: 1: HP: 2: Minor Wound: Endurance: 30: Failure, bleeds
Malgali (1): Casts Magic (Dullblade-Orc): 21: Success
Khari (1) wards location, attacks gnoll: 53: Success: Gnoll (1) parries: 23: Success: Attack parried
Kobold (1) attacks Khari: 31: Success: SE: Choose location (Head): Damage 1(0): No damage
Orc (1) attacks Malgali: 67: Failure

Round 1 Cycle 3

Eanfric (1) attacks Goblin: 31: Success: SE: Bleed: Hit Location: Right Leg: Damage: 8: HP: -4: Major Wound: Goblin is down

Round 2 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) moves to Kobold
Malgali (2) attacks Orc: 80: Failure
Khari (3) attacks Gnoll: 80: Success: Gnoll (2) parries: 22: Success
Kobold (2) attacks Khari: Khari doesn’t parry: Success: SE: Choose Location (Head): Damage: 2(0): No Damage
Orc (2) attacks Malgali: 3: Critical Success: Malgali (1) parries: 68: Failure: Choose Location & Maximize Damage: Damage: 7(0): No Damage (Damage Resistance)
Gnoll (1) attacks Khari: 3: Critical Success: Khari (2) parries: 83: Success: SE: Bypass armor: Hit Location: Right Leg: Damage: 6: HP: -1: Serious Wound: Endurance: 39: Falls Prone

Round 2 Cycle 2

Eanfric (2) attacks Kobold: 97: Failure
Khari (1) attacks Gnoll: 39: Hard Success: SE: Choose Location (Head): Damage: 9(7): HP: 0: Serious Wound: Endurance: 78: Failure: Gnoll is down
Kobold (1) attacks Khari: 24: Success: SE: Choose Location (Head): Damage: 4(2): HP: 3: Minor Wound
Orc (1) attacks Malgali: 89: Failure

Round 2 Cycle 3

Eanfric (1) attacks Kobold: 78: Failure

Round 3 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) attacks Kobold: 15: Success: Kobold (2) Parries: 42: Failure: SE: Flurry: Hit Location: Abdomen: Damage: 6: HP: -1: Serious Wound: Endurance: 29: Failure: Kobold is down
Malgali (2) Delay
Khari (3) readies crossbow
Orc (2) attacks Malgali: 1: Critical Success: SE: Maximize Damage & Bypass armor: Hit Location: Left Arm: Damage: 10: HP -6: Major Wound: Luck Point Spend: Serious Wound: HP: -3

Round 3 Cycle 2

Eanfric (2) Moves to Orc
Malgali (1) Delay
Khari (2) loads crossbow
Orc (1) attacks Eanfric: 10: Success: Eanfric (1) parries: Success: Attack parried

Round 3 Cycle 3

Khari (1) loads crossbow

Round 4 Cycle 1

Eanfric (3) attacks Orc: 70: Success: Orc (2) Parries: 94: Failure: SE: Flurry: Hit Location: Head: :Damage: 8(0): No Damage
Flurry: Eanfric (2) attacks Orc: 70: Success: Orc (1) Parries: 46: Success: Attack Parried
Malgali (2) attacks Orc: 81: Failure
Khari (2) shoots crossbow: 76: Hard Failure: Hits Eanfric: Hit Location: Chest: Damage: 7(5): HP: 1: Minor Wound

Round 4 Cycle 2

Eanfric (1) attacks Orc: 4: Critical Success: SE: Bypass Armor & Maximize Damage: Hit Location: Right Leg: Damage: 8(8): HP: -2: Endurace: 74: Failure: Orc is prone
Malgali (1) attacks Orc: 20: Success: SE: Choose Location: Right Leg: Damage: 7(4): HP: -6: Major Wound: Orc is down

Khari: Kurs Drink: 2d4: 3: Head completely healed, Leg, minor wound
Malgali: Kurs Drink: 2d4: 6: Left arm: minor wound
Eanfric: Kurs Drink: 2d4: 4: Chest: minor wound

The heroes enter a vast chamber that is roughly carved and still being worked. Small veins of iron ore still line the walls. Four monsters work the mine, and as they see the party they howl and attack.
Considering the close quarters, Eanfric drops his bow and draws his sword and dagger, while Malgali aims at the orc and prepares to cast some spell. Khari charges, and tries to hit a gnoll, letting off a war cry, but the momentum is too high, and not having calculated the steps correctly, he misses.
The kobold, orc and goblin each close up to the dwarf, elf and the human respectively, while the gnoll attacks the charging dwarf, his attempt parried.
Eanfric, the ranger slashes at the goblin, who fails to stop his attack. The strike finds the goblin’s right arm, which starts bleeding profusely.
Malgali’s spell goes off and the orc’s axehead edge becomes duller than normal, this doesn’t stop the orc from attacking the sorcerer, but the elf avoids the hit.
Khari, against two foes, locks his shield in place to ward his left side, and attacks the gnoll, who parries his attack. The kobold strikes the dwarf, aiming high, above the shield, and hits the dwarf’s head. But doesn’t do any harm.
Eanfric slashes at the goblin again, hits the leg, and the broadsword hacks off the entire limb. Bleeding out, the goblin falls. Having no opponent, Eanfric moves in to assist the dwarf who is against double odds.
The elf tries to hit the orc with his stuff, and fails. The orc, laughs and attacks the sorcerer, but the dark protective aura, block the strike, and the orc startled, causes no harm.
Khari keeps on fighting against the kobold and the gnoll. His attack against the hyena-man is blocked and the kobold delivers another weak hit to his head. This is enough to get him off his guard, the gnoll attacks him once more with a swift blow. He parries, but his enemy has found the opening he needs, and strikes his leg, in an unarmored joint. The wound is serious, and the dwarf cries out and falls prone.
The ranger frantically tries to help his downed friend, by taking the attention away, and attacks the kobold, but doesn’t score a hit.
The dwarf doesn’t seem to need any help. From his prone state, he lashes out with all his strength, and delivers his black axe to the gnoll’s head. The hit is so strong, that the gnoll, falls down, unconcsious.
The kobold hits again the dwarf, this time, the club, manages to bruise his thick skull a little. Fazed the ranger misses again the little humanoid.
The orc swings his axe again at the sorcerer, but Malgali evades the attack.
Now Eanfric has the kobold’s attention, he thrusts his sword, but the little creature can’t avoid it. He hits it right in the belly, and it drops in pain with a serious wound.
Khari, with his leg wounded, can’t move to help Malgali. Instead he pulls out his crossbow strapped in his back, and begins to load it with a bolt.
The orc attacks the elf, and this time he notices the dark protective aura and avoids it. His axe, hacks at the elf’s left arm, and only by sheer luck, it’s not completely cut off. The elf screams for help, and the ranger is quick to oblige. He attacks the orc, who parries his blow.
He attacks again, and this time he hits the tough steel helmet on the orc’s head. He follows up with another strike from his dagger, but the orc is quick to intercept it. Malgali tries to hit the orc with his staff from the flank, but the whole chaos in melee, makes him dither and he fails to land a hit.
Khari has finally cocked his crossbow, and he shoot. Alas he misses, and as the three combatants are in melee, he hits Eanfric right in the chest. Thankfully the padded armor reduced some of the impact, and Eanfric can keep fighting. He attacks again, the orc unable to defend so quickly, and finds an unarmored spot on his right leg, mangling it. His leg useless, the orc falls to the floor.
His opponent down, Malgali brings his staff with full strength on the same wounded leg, and the orc passes out in pain.
They each take a turn of drinking a sip from the healing potion, and soon they’re back in proper fighting shape. Malgali can use his arm again and Khari can walk. Unfortunately the potion is now empty.
Searching through their opponents belongings, they find a cool silver ring, and a coil of rope. The ranger takes them both.

L. Tunnel of Death

Khari: Perception: 90: Failure
Khari: Evade: 3: Critical Success
Malgali: Evade: 62: Failure
Eanfric: Evade: 29: Success
Trap: 20: Success: Hit Location: Chest: Damage: 7(5): HP: 2: Minor Wound

The heroes enter a smooth and straight tunnel. The floor is marked with the dark stains of dried blood. As they reach the door to the other side, Khari fails to detect a mechanism, that upon opening the door, releases several rocks to their heads. The dwarf and the human avoid them, but the elf is hit on the shoulders, and is bruised.

M. Mysterious Fountain

In the center of the room is a stone fountain, carved in the image of a large dragon that coils around itself and sprays water out of its mouth. The water lands in a polished stone pool that has been cut into the floor around the statue. The air is sweet with the smell of fresh water. The heroes drink from the water to quench their thirst, and in a magical way, all their wounds and fatigue disappear.
They look around the room and see that there are no more doors, and it appears to be the end of the mine. But knowing that they haven’t found either the Stone Kind or the large lump of eisenmond, they start searching for a secret door.

Wandering Monster check: No monster

Khari: Perception: 62: Failure
Malgali: Perception: 21: Success

They find the secret door.

N. Sloping Passage

The tunnel has been cut downards at a sharp angle. Walking down is very dangerous, but with the rope, the heroes descend it with great care.

O. The Eisenmond Mine

The heroes finally enter a rough stone chamber, with flakes of a mysterious glowing ore flickering in the walls, floor and ceiling, making the dark walls shimmer like a starry night.
In the center, sitting on a small stone pedestal, is a short statue carved from a single granite block. It depicts a dwarf with a pick and other mining gear, missing it’s head which is tossed in the corner. The head sports a rusty crown, fashioned from iron, The statue’s hands are open and held out as if it was holding something.

Okay, so here’s a puzzle concerning players and not characters, but it can be resolved with Int checks, which I will test.

Khari: Insight: 63: Failure
Eanfric: Insight: 21: Success: He finds a secret compartment with two nuggets of eisenmond, that fit perfectly on the eye sockets of the statue’s head.
Malgali: Insight: 76: Failure

Khari: Insight: 82: Failure: Luck Point: 68: Failure
Eanfric: Insight: 28: Failure: Luck Point: 44: Failure
Malgali: Insight: 77: Failure: Luck Point: 4: Critical Success: He considers placing the head back on the statue.

Searching around for secret doors, Eanfric finds a small compartment in the pedestal that contains two nuggets of eisenmond. His keen senses tell him that they fit perfectly to the head, and he proceeds to place them there.
The party looks at the head. Then Malgali decides to re-assemble the statue.
As soon as the statue is assembled, a strange light fills the room. The stone body of the statue glows and the mouth moves slowly. In a voice deep and old as the mountain around, the statue speaks.
It says about how the mine belongs to the dwarves, and how good it is that the heroes have arrived because a great evil has tainted the spirit of the place. The priceless magical stone called the Eisenkern was stolen, and along with it, the power to trap the beast that lives at the heart of the mountain. If the Eisenkern is not returned, that terrible beast will be freed, and a horrible evil will come upon all who dwell in these lands.

Ending the Adventure

The heroes return and report their story to Gustovan, who seems troubled by it. He rewards them and takes thought of the matter.

The System

When I played Hârnmaster last session, I made a false statement. That Mythras was less detailed. That was incorrect. Mythras is the most detailed tactical rpg combat system I’ve played.
It includes mechanics to cover almost any possibility, and takes all the factors into account.
There are even more layers to detail in combat which I could not bring myself to monitor and since they were optional I decided not to use, namely the Weapon Reach rules, which are very interesting, but I don’t think it would be possible for me to run in solo party combat.
To manage to run everything I used Roll20, and even so there were times I did mistakes and had to double back to a previous point. I’m certain I made mistakes that I still am not aware of. One major mistake I did was regarding opposed non-differential rolls, where I was under the impression (as is in Hârnmaster) that the lower successful number wins at ties, but in Mythras the opposite is true (which also makes more sense).

Some major points regarding the system:
The Action Points, Round and Cycles mechanic is brilliant. That was very hard for me to bookkeep as a solo player, but I imagine that in group play, that won’t be an issue, especially with the use of tokens and such. I really liked how you have to consider if you’re gonna parry, ward location, delay or anything similar, and how it will affect the flow of the entire battle. For example when the fast ranger, Eanfric, who also had a high initiative, managed to score a hit, his flurry trait really helped to do a follow up attack, forcing his enemy to spend his entire action points pool at the start of the round, and rendering him defenseless to follow up attacks from other party members during the round.
The deadliness of the combat is even higher than in Hârnmaster. If the attacker chooses their special effects carefully, they can overcome any possible defense. I loved how when the orc realized the magical armor of the sorcerer, he could bypass it. Going through the possible special effects was time consuming as a solo player, and it can also be unbalancing (though I did not have that issue), but it’s the most profound trait of Mythras, and one it does best.
Finally the hit locations with hit points. This all can be very hard to keep track of as solo. It’s great, because you get to try to protect your own wounded parts, and aim for the enemy’s wounded parts as well, to end combat faster, but I was finding hard to do even with Roll20.
I found the pyramid skill build option very fast compared to previous chargens I had made where I was slowly choosing skills. Also it helped a lot in fleshing out the characters I had in mind.
Magic is absolutely great. There are Five types of magic in the core rules, and despite not having a High magic equivalent (which is in Classic Fantasy I presume, but in core rules I had to use Sorcery), I really enjoyed it. Just when I was afraid Sorcery is overpowered, with the Damage Resistance spell, I read that Bypass Armor special effects works on magical protection as well. That was great!

Overall I loved Mythras, but unfortunately it’s on the really hard part to do solo. I doubt it would be possible to maintain a solo adventure with multiple party combats, before it becomes tiring. It can be done, but it’s not the best solution. Mythras is aimed to group play where the tactical options are played out like mixing chess with RPGs.

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

The Luck Point meta economy and magical healing options, help the party recover quickly. Also some good tactical options, can help the heroes defeat waves of foes in the closed quarters that is a dungeon.
Ganging up and flanking oppoents is very strong, so the tactical positioning is even more important than in other game systems. Combat with multiple opponents does not entail a bonus or penalty to attack rolls, but instead, the accumulated Actions, can expend the outnumbered combatant’s Action Points quickly, and leave him unable to respond to all the attacks. I found that whenever my heroes had the numbers advantage, the battle ended very quickly, whereas in the last battle which was one to one, it came close to a dangerous end.
Mythras lends itself nicely to dungeon crawling, and I’m curious to try out Classic Fantasy in the future, in another attempt to solo it.

Summary

Mythras remains on my list of favorite RPGs, but it’s very hard to solo, due to the immense amount of details included. There are several parts of it that can fit well with Hârnmaster, and I could see myself mixing the two systems in the future.
Combat felt fast, and there were very few occasions where nothing happened, which is important to me, as it keeps things interesting.
Due to the strong and mind taxing amount of details, bookkeeping and rules, I decided to abandon any RPGfication of the adventure, and focused on the tactical board game elements instead.
giorgis and giannidowns are discussing. Toggle Comments
- giannidowns 4:35 pm on September 24, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  
  Fantastic read, and really sells the Mythras system. I am thoroughly enjoying your research into the games, styles, solo mechanics, and play tests.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  - giorgis 4:49 pm on September 24, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    
    Thank you! 😊
    
    LikeLike
giorgis 10:22 am on September 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Hârn ( 3 ), Solo ( 93 )
A Call to Glory S01 – Hârnmaster
Okay so for my next challenge, I will go at a more solo boardgaming approach than solo roleplaying.
I will choose the Level 1 dungeon A Call to Glory from TSR’s Dragon Quest, introductory adventure game and play it with a series of different RPG systems.
I will not be converting much, rather I will be freely translating to the nearest acceptable option. For example, if there aren’t kobolds in the RPG system under test, then I’ll choose another monster rather than try to create kobolds.
I won’t be warping the adventure at all, rather I’ll be using it as is.

I’ll be using a diverse party of 3 characters. I’ll try to include as many different demihuman races and professions as possible to have a party that can deal with most tasks.
If I can find pregens that can fit a slot in the party, I’ll use them.

So for the first attempt I will be using Hârnmaster 3ed. I expect combat to be deadly and slow. I’m eager to see how it will turn out.

The Party

I’ll be using pregens from https://www.lythia.com/game_aides/friends-foes-followers-volume-1/
- Eitri Terrika, a Khuzdul Clansman
- Melas Renier, a Sindarin Ranger
- Rybryn of Dara (aka Shadow), an Unguilded Thief
The Adventure

The heroes have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. The heroes have lived here for many years and think of Torlynn as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.
He asks of the heroes to go explore the old, abandoned, dwarven, iron mine, because strange lights and sounds come from within. They’re to find out if there is something wrong there or if the reports are false.

The heroes enter the dungeon. It’s entrance is a rough cavern, cut from the stone long ago by dwarves. They check their weapons and start down into the mine, with the wind blowing in their backs.

Note: again I have to warn the reader that there are huge mechanics text blocks. Hârnmaster combat is very detailed, so I'm giving the reader an opportunity to read this as an example, or just skip it and jump to the narrative sections.

Some abbreviations:
CS/CF/MS/MF: Marginal/Critical, Success/Failure
EI: Effective Impact, essentially the damage points done after factoring in weapon and armor types.
DTA: Defender Tactical Advantage, an extra free move the defender gets, max 1 per round
WQ: Weapon Quality

A. Tunnel

Wandering monster check: Hobgoblin

I’ll be using the Black Orc stats for the Hobgoblin (Hgo).

Round 1

Eitri vs Hgo: 64/44: MS/MS: Block
Hgo Handaxe WQ: 10/11: Survives, WQ -1
Eitri Hammeraxe WQ: 9/15: Survives, WQ -1

Hgo vs Eitri: 84/93: MF/MS: DTA
DTA: Eitri vs Hgo: 84/70: MS/CF: A*2: Thorax: EI (Effective Impact): 1: M1: Minor Bruise: Shock Roll: 6/10: Not Shocked
Hgo: 1 IL (Injury Level)

Round 2

Eitri vs Hgo: 59/62: MS/MS: Block
Hgo Handaxe WQ: 8/10: Survives, WQ -1
Eitri Hammeraxe WQ: 14/14: Survives, WQ -1

Hgo vs Eitri: 19/11: MS/MS: Block
Hgo Handaxe WQ: 8/9: Survives, WQ -1
Eitri RoundShield WQ: 13/17: Survives, WQ -1

Round 3

Eitri vs Hgo: 63/94: MS/MF: A*1: Abdomen: EI: 1: M1: Minor Bruise: Shock Roll: 4/10: Not Shocked
Hgo: 2 IL

Hgo vs Eitri: 38/85: MS/CS: DTA
DTA: Eitri vs Hgo: 55/41: CS/MS: A*1: Thorax: EI: 0: No Injury

Round 4

Eitri vs Hgo: 28/98: MS/MF: A*1: Right Shoulder: EI: 0: No Injury

Hgo vs Eitri: 61/92: MF/MS: DTA
DTA: Eitri vs Hgo: 40/42: CS/MS: A*1: Abdomen: EI: 1: M1: Minor Bruise: Shock Roll: 16/10: Hgo is down
Hgo: 3 IL

The wind fades away as the heroes move into the mine. A long tunnel leads onward, and suddenly from the other end, a cruel humanoid creature arrives. It’s roar is countered by Eitri’s dwarven war cry. The whole party is in a single file, so it’s a one-to-one fight.
Eitri attacks the hobgoblin with his hammeraxe, and his enemy blocks the attack with his handaxe. He slashes at the dwarf who blocks his strike with his roundshield and finds an opening to counterattack. The hammeraxe finds the hobgoblin at the torso, bruising him.
His wind lost, the dwarf attacks him again, but the hobgoblin blocks yet another strike. The hobgoblin gathers his strength and attacks only to be blocked by the shield, in the narrow tunnel.
Eitri hammers down on the hobgoblin who fails to block, and bruises his abdomen.
Bruised, the hobgoblin tries to hit his challenger, and is blocked again by the shield. Eitri pushes aside the handaxe and with the opening he manages a weak hit on the thorax of the humanoid.
He follows with another hit on the hobgoblin’s weapon shoulder, too weak to make a difference.
In vain the hobgoblin attacks again his masterful opponent, is blocked once more, and with the advantage, the dwarf hits him again in the belly. The consecutive strikes are too much for the creature, who falls, beaten.

B. The First Lair

I’ll be using the Small Orc stats for both creatures

Round 1

Eitri vs Gob: 51/43: MS/MS: Block
Gob Spear WQ: 14/11: Broken

Gob Grope Dagger

Kob vs Rybryn: 65/33: CS/MS: A*1: Thorax: EI: 10: S3: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 7/13: Not Shocked
Rybrun: 3 IL

Round 2

Melas vs Kob: 84/39: MS/MS: Block
Kob Spear WQ: 11/11: Survives, WQ -1
Melas LongKnife WQ: 18: Survives, WQ -1

Rybryn vs Kob: 46/13: MS/MS: Block
Kob Spear WQ: 5/10: Survives, WQ -1
Rybryn ShortSword WQ: 15/16: Survives, WQ -1

Eitri vs Gob: 46/30: MS/CS: DTA
DTA: Gob vs Eitri: 96/7: MF/MS: DTA
DTA: Eitri vs Gob: 58/30: MS/CS: DTA: –

Gob vs Eitri: 65/68: CS/MS: A*1: Left Shoulder: EI: 0: No Injury

Kob vs Rybryn: 8/91: A*1: Thorax: EI: 11: S3: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 23/13: Rybryn is down
Rybryn: 6 IL

Round 3

Melas vs Kob: 48/51: MS/MS: Block
Kob Spear WQ: 5/9: Survives, WQ -1
Melas LongKnife WQ: 10/17: Survives, WQ -1

Eitri vs Gob: 85/84: CS/MF: A*2: Thorax: EI: 8: S2: Serious Fracture
Gob: 2 IL

Gob vs Eitri: 42/32: MS/MS: Block
Gob Dagger WQ: 7/11: Survives, WQ -1
Eitri Roundshield WQ: 7/16: Survives, WQ -1

Kob vs Melas: 19/39: MS/MS: Miss

Round 4

Melas vs Kob: 34/6: MS/MS: Block
Kob Spear WQ: 7/8: Survives, WQ -1
Melas LongKnife WQ: 14/16: Survives, WQ -1

Eitri vs Gob: 31/45: MS/CS: DTA
DTA: Gob vs Eitri: 42/42: Block
Gob Dagger WQ: 17/10: Broken

Gob: Morale: MF: Pass/No action

Kob vs Melas: 79/65: MS/CS: DTA
DTA: Melas vs Kob: 1/37: Block
Kob Spear WQ: 9/7: Broken

Round 5

Melas vs Kob: 34/49: MS/MS: Miss

Eitri vs Gob: 47/33: MS/MS: Miss

Gob: Morale: MF: Pass/No action

Kob: Grope Dagger

Round 6

Melas vs Kob: 13/81: MS/MF: A*1: Abdomen: EI: 9: S3: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 11/10: Kob is down
Kob: 3 IL

Eitri vs Gob: 89/27: MS/MS: Miss

Gob: Morale: MF: Pass/No action

Round 7

Melas vs Gob: 71/72: MS/MF: A*1: Abdomen: EI: 9: S3: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 15/10: Gob is down

As the heroes enter the room, they notice a couple of beds. Probably used to be the miners’, but now they have new occupants. A kobold and a goblin get up, pick their spears and attack.
Eitri charges at the kobold, who tries to block his attack, breaking his spear in the process. The kobold draws a dagger quickly.
The elf ranger and the thief engage in combat with the goblin who stabs Rybryn in the chest. She cries out in pain, but stands fighting.
The heroes try to find an opening, but the goblin takes advantage of the spear’s long reach, and blocks both their attempts. The goblin follows up with another stab at Rybryn. Her belly pierced, the thief falls.
The dwarf and the kobold exchange several strikes, with the kobold gaining the upper hand and hitting the dwarf in the shoulder. The dagger fails to pierce the mail, and the fight continues.
The goblin blocks the sindarin ranger’s long knife and strikes back, but the elf dodges out of harm’s way. Eitri hits with his hammeraxe the kobold right in the thorax, fracturing a few ribs. Shaken, the kobold tries to retaliate, but only hits the roundshield.
Melas slashes at the goblin who blocks the long knife, and tries to stab the elf, but the ranger does a quick side step and hacks the spear shaft in two.
Eitri attacks the kobold, who ducks. Finding an opening to the dwarf’s side, he jabs, but Eitri brings his roundshield back to bear quickly, snapping the dagger blade. Unarmed, the kobold cowers in the corner, not knowing what to do.
The heroes miss their enemies, hitting empty air instead and the goblin finds the opportunity to draw a dagger. It doesn’t do him much good as the elf ranger stabs him right in the belly, and he falls to the floor.
The dwarf tries to finish off the kobold, who jumps around, evading the sweeps.
All his attention to the dwarf, he misses the elf, who flanks him and stabs his abdomen, sending him to death.
The heroes gather around their fallen companion and tend to her wounds. Once they’re certain that she’s stable, they look around the room for anything important and press on. They find a long sword and a belt among the rubble.

C. Jagged Cavern

I’m not going to run a wandering monsters check as the party is down to two.

Nothing of interest in this narrow cut cavern in the stone. Only the occasional splashing of water driping from the ceiling.

D. Orc Lair

Round 1

Melas vs Orc: Aim High: 50/33: CS/MS: A*1: Skull: EI: 2: Minor Stab: Shock Roll: 2/10: Not Shocked
Orc: 1 IL

Eitri vs Orc: 64/84: MS/MF: A*1: Left Thigh: EI: 8: S2: Serious Fracture: Shock Roll: 8/10: Not Shocked
Orc: 3 IL

Orc vs Eitri: 57/85: MF/CS: DTA
DTA: Eitri vs Orc: 97/79: MS/MF: A*1: Left Knee: EI: 3: M1: Minor Bruise: Shock Roll: 14/10: Orc is down
Orc: 4 IL

As soon as the heroes enter this small room, the stench of rotten meat fills their nostrils. With their infravision they make out an the figure as they close in to engage.
Melas quickly stabs the orc in the skull, while Eitri follows with a heavy bash at it’s thigh, breaking it. It groans and tries to retaliate, but wounded, the dwarf takes advantage and hits it’s left knee. It loses equilibrium and falls to the floor, moaning.
The dwarf notices a loose stone slab on the floor. Pushing it aside he finds a bag of gold, probably spoils belonging to the defeated orc.

E. Trapped Room

Eitri: Awareness: 70: CF
Greek Fire Trap: 48: MS: A*1: Skull: EI: 2: M1: Minor Burn: Shock Roll: 6/15: Not Shocked.
Eitri: 1 IL

A small empty room, with a funny smell. Black ash and soot cover the floors and walls. A steel door with an iron handle sits in the middle of the floor.
As the dwarf tries to open the door he hears a clicking noise. He’s a bit late, and a jet of greek fire, lets of to his head. The helmet protects him, but without avoiding a slight burn. What’s even worse is that the whole door was a trap as behind it is only rock.

F. Gnoll Lair

Round 1

Melas vs Gno: 42/27: MS/MS: –

Eitri vs Gno: 25/79: A*2: Right Forearm: EI: 9: S2: Serious Fracture: Shock Roll: 7/10: Not Shocked: Fumble Roll: 14/11: Fail: Drops Mangar in next hex
Gno: 2 IL

Gno: Disengage to Mangar hex

Round 2

Melas vs Gno: 37/94: MS/MF: A*1: Right Shoulder: EI: 3: M1: Minor Stab: Shock Roll: 12/10: Gno is down
Gno: 3 IL

The heroes enter a room and a dozen of small insects buzz past them. Biting flies are everywhere. A large furred gnoll is sharpening his Mangar, and as he sees them attacks.
The elf tries to hit him, but he steps aside, right into the trajectory of Eitri’s hammeraxe. He hits him in the forearm, seriously hurting him, and causing him to drop his Mangar which clatters to the ground a few feet away. The gnoll jumps back to catch the weapon, and the quick elf stabs his shoulder. The gnoll screams in pain and passes out.
Searching the creature, they find an invigorating honey-like potion. Melas recognizes it for a potion of healing. Kur’s Drink. They decide to get it back to Rybryn.

C. Jagged Cavern

Wandering Monster Check: No monster

B. The First Lair

Wandering Monster Check: Monster: Bugbear

Round 1

Melas vs Bgb: 83/60: MS/CF: A*2: Skull: EI: 12: S3: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 14/14: Not Shocked
Bgb: 3 IL

Eitri vs Bgb: 89/84: MS/MF: A*1: Right Thigh: EI: 6: Serious Fracture: Stumble Roll: 9/12: Not Stumbled: Shock Roll: 16/14: Bgb is down
Bgb: 5 IL

I decide Kur’s drink will heal 2d4 IL and allow for a new SR to see if the character is still in shock. It has enough for 3 drinks.
Rybryn: Heal: 6 IL. Rybryn is back to full health.

As the heroes get back to where Rybryn is resting they see a bugbear burst in the room. The bugbear sees the two dead humanoids, and then the woman resting on the bed and lets of a loud growl.
Swiftly Melas attacks, stabbing the creature on the head. It screams in pain. Eitri hits lower at the same time, fracturing it’s thigh. Without having time to react, the creature falls to the ground, motionless.
Melas gives the healing potion to Rybryn, and by magic, her stab wounds close completely, and she’s back on her feet.

C. Jagged Cavern

Wandering Monster Check: No monster

G. Empty Room

Wandering Monster Check: No monster

I decide no to search the pile of dirt in the room.

The heroes go through a rough room like a cave, a small pile of dirt is at one corner of the room. The party moves onward.

H. Broken Room

Melas: 73: MS
Eitri: 70: CS
Rybryn: 8: MS

As the party goes through this large chamber cut from the stone, they notice the walls and ceiling are cracked, and huge chunks of stone have fallen on the floor. Their vibrations cause some more to fall as they pass through, but they avoid it without harm.

I. Narrow Tunnel

Round 1

Eitri vs Orc: 100/24: CF/MS: D*2: Left Thigh: EI: 13: G4: Grevious Cut: Automatic Stumble: Shock Roll: 17/15: Eitri is Down
Eitri: 5 IL
Bleeder

Orc vs Melas: 24/43: MS/MS: –

Round 2

Melas vs Orc: 21/95: MS/CF: A*2: Left Hip: EI: 13: G4: Grevious Stab: Automatic Stumble: Shock Roll: 11/10: Orc is Down
Orc: 4 IL

Eitri: Kur’s Drink: Heals 3 IL: Shock Roll: 5/15: Eitri is back on his feet.

The heroes find another narrow tunnel. They go through in a single file, the dwarf in front, the elf in the middle, and the thief in the rear. Suddenly the door at the end of the hall swings open, and a foul orc, lifts its gleaming black axe and marches towards them.
Eitri engages in combat, but he misses the orc, who counterstrikes, without trying to avoid the dwarf. His counterstrike hits the dwarf with full strength on his thigh. Blood spurts out from the wound. Eitri falls under the weight of his own body.
The orc steps over his fallen foe and tries to hack at the elf ranger, who avoids the strike with agility.
Melas now jabs at the orc, his long knife hitting the orc’s hip piercing it through and through. The creature lets off a scream, and faints through pain, dropping down in shock.
Without wasting any more time, the elf administers a dose of Kur’s drink to the dwarf, whose wound starts closing, but not completely. Yet, the dwarf recovers, and can fight once more.

J. The Story Room

I’m not rolling a wandering monsters check since the next room has a major fight.

The heroes enter a large chamber that has been polished smooth. Ancient dwarvish runes are carved into the walls. Eitri reads them out aloud. They tell of the story of the digging of the mine and the work that the dwarves did there. Near the end, it mentions that the dwarves found a vein of glowing iron unlike anything they had seen before. They mined this strange ore, which they called eisenmond and found they could make weapons of great magic with it.
As they mined for more eisenmond they discovered some dark and evil secret about the mountain, without saying anything more than that they packed up and left overnight.
The story ends by saying that they left behind a large nugget of eisenmond which glowed brighter than the rest, in the care of someone called the Stone King.
The heroes realize that this is the key to the secret of the mountain, and what Gustovan sent them there to find.

K. The Iron Mine

Round 1

Melas vs Orc: 8/13: MS/MS: Block
Orc: Handaxe WQ: 12/11: Broken

Rybryn vs Orc: 94/24: MF/MS: Dodge: –

Eitri vs Gob: 25/36: CS/MS: A*1: Thorax: EI: 0: No impact

Gob vs Eitri: 42/49: MS/MS: Block
Gob: Handaxe WQ: 17/11: Broken

Kob vs Eitri: 58/90: MS/CF: A*2: Face: Eye: EI: 13: G4: Grievous Stab: Shock Roll: 18/15: Eitri is down
Eitri: 6 IL

Gno vs Melas: 72/43: MF/MS: Dodge: –

Orc: Gropple dagger

Round 2

Melas vs Gno: 36/54: MS/MS: Dodge: –

Rybryn vs Orc: 64/3: MS/MS: Dodge: –

Gob: Gropple dagger

Kob vs Melas: 86/3: MF/MS: DTA
DTA Melas vs Kob: 15/67: CS/MF: A*2: Abdomen: EI: 10: S3: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 13/10: Kob is down

Gno vs Melas: 34/18: MS/MS: Dodge: –

Orc vs Rybryn: 29/43: MS/MS: Dodge: –

Round 3

Melas vs Gno: High: 53/93: MS/MF: A*1: Skull: EI: 3: M1: Minor Stab: Shock Roll: 6/10: Not Shocked
Gno: 1 IL

Rybryn vs Orc: 2/25: MS/CS: DTA
DTA: Orc vs Rybryn: 25/49: CS/MS: A*1: Left Upper Arm: EI: 9: S2: Serious Stab: Fumble Roll: 11/18: No Fumble: Shock Roll: 7/13: Not Shocked
Rybryn: 2 IL

Gob vs Melas: 75/84: MF/CS: DTA
DTA Melas vs Gob: 6/79: MS/MF: A*1: Thorax: EI: 5: S2: Shock Roll: 2/10: Not Shocked
Gob: 2 IL

Gno vs Melas: 78/54: MF/MS: DTA: –

Orc vs Rybryn: 16/15: MS/CS: DTA
DTA Rybryn vs Orc: 94/56: MF/MS: Dodge: –

Round 4

Melas vs Gob: 73/19: MS/MS: Dodge: –

Rybryn vs Orc: 64/98: MS/MF: A*1: Neck: EI: 1: M1: Minor Cut: Shock Roll: 2/10: Not Shocked
Orc: 1 IL

Gob vs Melas: 33/59: MS/MS: Block
Gob: Dagger WQ: 8/11: Survives, WQ -1
Melas LongKnife WQ: 9/15: Survives, WQ -1

Gno vs Melas: 66/25: DTA
DTA Melas vs Gno: 8/27: Block
Gno Mang WQ: 11/11: Survives, WQ -1
Melas LongKnife WQ: 8/14: Survives, WQ -1

Orc vs Rybryn: 87/26: MF/MS: DTA
DTA Rybryn vs Orc: 30/36: CS/MS: A*1: Right Upper Arm: EI: 4: M1: Minor Cut: Fumble Roll: 16/11: Drop weapon, current hex: Shock Roll: 6/10: Not Shocked
Orc: 2 IL

Round 5

Melas vs Gob: 6/17: MS/MS: (Counterstrike): B1
A1: Neck: EI: 8: S2: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 14/10: Gob is down
D*1: Skull: EI: 6: S2: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 10/14: Not Shocked
Gob: 4 IL
Melas: 2 IL

Rybryn vs Orc: 40/52: CS/MS: A*1: Abdomen: EI: 1: M1: Minor Cut: Shock Roll: 9/10: Not Shocked
Orc: 3 IL

Gno vs Melas: 51/01: MF/MS: DTA
DTA: Melas vs Gno: 11/06: MS/MS: CS: B1:
A1: Right Thigh: EI: 7: S2: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 11/10: Gno is down
D*1: Right Hand: EI: 8: 0: No Impact
Gno: 3 IL

Orc: Gropple dagger

Round 6

Melas vs Orc: 3/98: MS/MF: (CounterStrike): A*1: Face: Mouth: EI: 8: S2: Serious Stab: Shock Roll: 14/10: Orc is down
Orc: 5 IL

Kur’s Drink on Eitri: 5 IL Healed, 1 IL remaining. Shock Roll:2/15: Revived

The heroes enter a vast chamber that is roughly carved and still being worked. Small veins of iron ore still line the walls. Four monsters work the mine, and as they see the party they howl and attack.
Melas closes in on the orc, who tries to block his jab. The orcish handaxe is too crude for the fine elven longknife, and the axehead shatters. The orc draws a dagger as Rybryn flanks him, and dodges the attack.
Eitri locks himself in combat with the goblin and hits the humanoid in the torso, but the strike is too weak to hurt the creature, who attacks back. The goblin’s handaxe finds the tough dwarven roundshield and the hilt breaks in two. With his attention to the goblin, Eitri, fails to notice the kobold who jumps right in front of him, and stabs him with a dagger right in the eye socket, bypassing the helmet. The dwarf lets off a scream that echoes in the chamber, and holding his head, he falls to the ground.
The gnoll comes in to support the orc who fights alone against the two heroes, but his attack against Melas fails and they dance around fighting, not scoring any hits. The kobold leaves the downed dwarf and sneaks to flank Melas as well, but the elf skewers him, and it drops.
Rybryn and the orc keep fighting each other, and after a couple unsuccessful exchanges, the orc gain the advantage and stabs the thief’s left arm. She cries out at the wound, but holds on to the fight.
Melas is fighting alone against both the gnoll and the goblin who has drawn a dagger. He manages to wound each, while dodging their blows. A few more hits end in clashes, the weapons blocking each other.
Rybryn slashes at the orc, neck height, spilling some blood, the orc lunges back, only to fall into a feint, and she hacks at his arm, disarming him, the dagger clattering at the floor.
Melas charges at the goblin, who decides it’s all or nothing, and forfeits any defence in favor of scoring a hit. They stab at each other, the long knife pierces through the goblin’s neck, finishing him, while the elf is hurt at the side of his head. The wound is serious, but he stands. The gnoll attacks Melas right away, hoping to hit the disoriented elf, but he’s mastered by his opponent. Melas stabs the gnoll at the thigh. The wound is too much for the gnoll and it falls. He barely hits Melas’ weapon hand as he delivers the hit, but the armor absorbs it.
Rybryn gets past the orc’s defense, as it reaches down to get back his dagger. The thief’s shortsword hacks at his belly. The thief is assisted by his friend, and the elf dispatches the orc, with a through and through hit at his mouth.
Weary and hurt, quickly the heroes pour the last contents of Kur’s drink into Eitri’s mouth. He barely manages to gulp it, but soon the healing properties of this potent potion take effect. While he’s not entirely healthy again, he’s been saved from certain death, and his vision is partially restored. If they make it out of the mine alive, he’ll need a healer.
Searching through their opponents belongings, they find a cool silver ring, and a coil of rope. The thief takes them both.

L. Tunnel of Death

Rybryn: Awareness: 29: MS
Rybryn: Lockcraft: 63: MS

The heroes enter a smooth and straight tunnel. The floor is marked with the dark stains of dried blood. As they reach the door to the other side, Rybryn gestures the group to stop. She has noticed a mechanism that would release piles of rocks from the ceiling to fall upon them. After a short while she disarms it, and the party enters the next room.

M. Mysterious Fountain

In the center of the room is a stone fountain, carved in the image of a large dragon that coils around itself and sprays water out of its mouth. The water lands in a polished stone pool that has been cut into the floor around the statue. The air is sweet with the smell of fresh water. The heroes drink from the water to quench their thirst, and in a magical way, all their wounds and fatigue disappear.
They look around the room and see that there are no more doors, and it appears to be the end of the mine. But knowing that they haven’t found either the Stone Kind or the large lump of eisenmond, they start searching for a secret door.

Wandering Monster check: No monster

Rybryn: Awareness: 37: MS

They find the secret door.

N. Sloping Passage

The tunnel has been cut downards at a sharp angle. Walking down is very dangerous, but with the rope, the heroes descend it with great care.

O. The Eisenmond Mine

The heroes finally enter a rough stone chamber, with flakes of a mysterious glowing ore flickering in the walls, floor and ceiling, making the dark walls shimmer like a starry night.
In the center, sitting on a small stone pedestal, is a short statue carved from a single granite block. It depicts a dwarf with a pick and other mining gear, missing it’s head which is tossed in the corner. The head sports a rusty crown, fashioned from iron, The statue’s hands are open and held out as if it was holding something.

Okay, so here’s a puzzle concerning players and not characters, but it can be resolved with Int checks, which I will test.

Eitri: Awareness: 27: MS: He finds a secret compartment with two nuggets of eisenmond, that fit perfectly on the eye sockets of the statue’s head.

Eitri: Intelligence: 9/13: Success: He considers placing the head back on the statue.

Searching around for secret doors, Eitri finds a small compartment in the pedestal that contains two nuggets of eisenmond. His keen senses tell him that they fit perfectly to the head, and he proceeds to place them there.
The party looks at the head. Then Eitri decides to pay homage to his ancestors, and re-assemble the statue.
As soon as the statue is assembled, a strange light fills the room. The stone body of the statue glows and the mouth moves slowly. In a voice deep and old as the mountain around, the statue speaks.
It says about how the mine belongs to the dwarves, and how good it is that the heroes have arrived because a great evil has tainted the spirit of the place. The priceless magical stone called the Eisenkern was stolen, and along with it, the power to trap the beast that lives at the heart of the mountain. If the Eisenkern is not returned, that terrible beast will be freed, and a horrible evil will come upon all who dwell in these lands.

Ending the Adventure

The heroes return and report their story to Gustovan, who seems troubled by it. He rewards them and takes thought of the matter.

The System

Okay, this turned out more or less how I expected it to.
Hârnmaster combat needed a lot of bookkeeping, and was deadly, but to be honest it was the most interesting set of fantasy combat rules I’ve played so far. I’m certain I’ve done several mistakes, especially near the EML (Effective Mastery Level – essentially the skill level after modifiers), and considering the deadliness of the system, the outcome could have been different. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and I’m not one to nitpick a solo crunchy game.
So Hârnmaster has a very smart way to run combat. The attacker chooses a zone of attack (low, mid, high. defaults to mid) and weapon attack type (bludgeon, edge, piercing, defaults to highest impact) while the defender chooses their defense (block, counterstrike, dodge, ignore), and depending on their choices, there’s a large array of possible results (as you may have derived from the session). This all makes things interesting. You may have noticed that there were only a few results in combat where nothing happened.
Usually it had to do with the dodge defense, which is what I’d call the safest defense approach, followed by block, and finally counterstrike where you forfeit defending, and something is bound to happen. There’s a caveat though with dodge, – it’s a separate skill.
The results of combat include strikes, blocks, fumbles, stumbles, nothing (dodge), and defender tactical advantage. Now the defender tactical advantage is what I’d call an opening, The defender gets a free action. This is very effective in getting more dense action in a round, and higher chance for something happening. Also blocks have a chance to break your weapon, and also reduce your weapon’s quality. For how long can you keep blocking the enemy strikes before you end up unarmed? That’s an extra reason to carry a secondary weapon.
Now, for wounds, the strike locations have a wide array of body parts that you may hit. I went with the detailed option and not the merged ones that are available in the Dead Weight w/Quickstart adventure.
There you roll and calculate your effective impact, and get the resulting injury. The injury may cause a stumble or fumble, which will shift the battle one way or another, and of course there’s a good chance for a wound that will drop your character. Don’t go into battle unarmored!
What I really liked was how Shock Rolls include every injury, so the combatant may either fall due to accumulation of minor wounds, a new serious wound, or a mix of both.
Of course being wounded reduces your ability to fight properly and to do other physical tasks.
Another clever mechanic of Hârnmaster was spreading the Critical results among the entire range. Criticals happen whenever a _0 or _5 is rolled on the d100. Which means that the better you are, you have a higher chance to roll a critical success, but also if you’re not so good, you have a higher chance to roll a critical failure.
Injuries healing mechanics are equally crunchy (there’s a whole process to it, I won’t go into detail now), and may take weeks for full recovery.

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

All this results in a gritty low fantasy game. So I had to give my characters a chance to survive a dungeon crawl which otherwise would not be possible. I considered the healing potion as written in Dragon Quest, and saw it heals 2d4 hit points. So I decided that it will heal 2d4 Injury Levels, instantly. The last part is essentially important, as anything longer than that means, the wounded party member is not functional. I did include a new Shock Roll to give a chance that they won’t recover, but thankfully it did not happen.
The pregenerated characters were a tad bit strong (they were rolled by their authors), which is also in line with the Draqon Quest adventure where the heroes are full hit die. Also I did not want to spend time generating characters (even using points) because it wasn’t the aim of my experiment.
Following the Hârnmaster combat to the letter, made using a bow in a dungeon redundant. It’s scaled to a more realistic range, so there’s no reason the elf ranger would try to shoot a monster within melee range, and he used the long knife instead. I could have given him the option to shoot above the dwarf, when standing behind him in the narrow corridors. Maybe I should have, it would have made things more interesting and given me the opportunity to also see how missile combat works. Maybe next time.
Also the thief, in regular D&D/Dragon Quest, they should be able to hide out of sight. I did not try to do this at all. It felt wrong to me for them to vanish in plain sight. But again maybe I should try it, since the chaos of the combat and the crammed and dark dungeon conditions would allow this. I’ll consider it for next time.
I did follow the advice given in the adventure book on when to roll wandering monsters, and it all turned out quite ok.
Overall with the modifications I did, I find it was a balanced experience, and my party was at constant risk of failure. They were stronger than the individual monsters, but the constant fights did wear them down, as a proper dungeon crawl should.
As to the story, I must confess that without warping the adventure I got quite bored at about the start. There was no suspense at all, and it felt like an arena fight. I’m pondering at my next attempt to change things a bit.

Summary

Hârnmaster is still on the list of my favorite RPG systems. It’s more detailed than Mythras/Runequest. Compared to MERP/Rolemaster, it feels like in Hârnmaster you run the equation, while in MERP you lookup the result. I did enjoy this dungeon crawl, albeit I will need to make it feel less like a board game, and more like an RPG by introducing some Solo Oracle/GME elements.
giorgis and drjmcmillan are discussing. Toggle Comments
- drjmcmillan 8:25 pm on September 19, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  
  Hi Giorgis. Am a keen solo’er myself and have just stumbled across your blog due to your Secret Clocks system. HAve subscribed. I’ll enjoy seeing what you employ and when. Thanks for blogging.
  
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  - giorgis 9:41 pm on September 19, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    
    Hi,
    Thanks for the subscription and kind feedback!
    Hope you enjoy.
    
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giorgis 6:37 pm on September 7, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Mythic ( 3 ), Solo ( 93 )

A monster’s bounty – A weird cyberpunk fantasy adventure – S1E08
Brief summary: Lt. Athen Smarte is a Hunter. Solitary warriors who hunt down and dispatch warp monsters. In the last session she found a new lead to follow.

I’m digging deeper into Mythic, and I’ll be using Mythic Variations 2 for this session. I’ve also skimmed through Mythic Variations 1 to mainly for theory and examples to help me understand Mythic GME better.

Therefore, I’m reducing CF to 6 to be in line with MV2 (Mythic Variations 2).

I’m deducing that German Kennet is in possession of a car. I can’t think of another way he would be moving around Mr Morikai, so it makes sense that he has one.

Q: Does it make sense to play out the fixer scene?
A: No

So, she’ll try to purchase a couple of SMGs from Merlin, and Night Vision goggles in case they need to go underground.
Wealth (d8): 4,4: Success. Success, but Wealth die drops to d6.

So, next scene will be them following Alcantar, waiting in German’s car until he shows up.

Is the scene modified? 2 against 6: Interrupted: PC Positive: Guide a Project.

I’m not sure about my interpretation, so I’m gonna ask:
Q: Is she asked to root out any traitors in the guild by Col. Faulkner?
A: No

I was just about to scratch the interrupt scene in favor of the 10-second rule, then it became 100 seconds, then 1000 seconds. I so much hate disregarding mechanics, even when told to do so by the oracle. In the end, as I am about to give in. I decide a more liberal approach. Maybe “project” means one of Smarte’s goals (right now the threads she’s following), and maybe “guide”, means, someone has information to help her towards the goal. All in the context of PC-Positive.

Returning from the meeting with Merlin, Lt. Smarte and Mr. Kennet park outside Athen’s Appartment. They’ve gotten themselves some more serious firepower and night vision gadgets to use, in case things turn more serious than they already are.
As they step outside, a destitute pushes her.
They look at each other for a moment.
“You!” She gasps out. “You’re the woman from the station. You really showed them! Filthy corporate scum.”
Athen instictively looks around to make sure she’s not heard.

Q: Is the destitute woman heard? (Unlikely)
A: Yes

A couple of passers by look at her.
“Shush! You must have mistaken me for someone else!” Athen shushes the beggar woman, and looks at her with meaning, hoping she can get the message through to the deranged mind.

Persuasion (d6): 10, 5: Success with a raise.

“Ah yes, you all look alike.” She says loudly, understanding Athen. “Come, come, I’ve got something to show you.” She tugs Athen from her jacket to follow her.

Detail Check: Sadness, Ceaselessly Mysterious.

Kennet looks at Smarte, and she motions for him to come along. They follow the beggar woman in a back alley, and she heads to a sewer grate and opens it.
“Why go into the sewers?” Athen asks.
“That’s how I escaped that night. The metro and the sewers connect, in an endless maze. Noone knows how to walk them. They all get lost. Except that man. The man with the third eye.” The beggar lady says. “I followed him from a distance.”
“Take us to there then!” Athen asks.

Q: Does the beggar woman agree to guide them in the sewers? (Unlikely, she seems scared)
A: No

“I saw piles of dead people. Terrible stuff. Nightmares. The hunters should not have allowed this to happen. No. We’re alone again. I’m not going back in there.” The beggar woman responds.

Persuasion (d6): 10, 5: Success with a raise.

“I’m a hunter.” Athen replies. “You lead me, and we’ll make those monsters pay.”
The woman thinks it over. “I’ll guide you part of the way. Then I go back. Don’t get lost.”
Athen nods.
“I’ll go bring the support.” German says and he goes to bring the sack with the weapons from the trunk.
Soon the three of them are in the sewers.

I’m not 100% certain I chose the right interpretations. But it keeps the story going, though I must confess that it feels biased, even if the interpretations fit with the story threads.

I’m keeping the CF at 6.

I was so tempted to make this another dungeon crawl (or should I saw sewer crawl), but I’m still going to play by Mythic’s rules and guidelines to the best of my ability. Mythic plays with scenes, and that’s what I’m doing.

Athen and German, follow the beggar woman into the sewers to the point of interest.

Is the Scene modified? 8 against 6: No

Q: Do they encounter anything on the way there?
A: No

Q: Do they get lost?
A: No

After a good while into the dark, searching around corners, following their guide, she suddenly stops.
“Go forth. Second junction to the right. I’m not coming along.” She says.
“Will you wait for us here?” Athen asks.

Q: Will she? (Unlikely)
A: Yes (barely)

She nods. “But only for a little while. If I hear noise, I’m gone, like the rats.”
Athen taps her right hand over her heart in a thank you gesture. She knows the old lady risks a lot by waiting.
“If you don’t find me, follow the yellow arrows. They’ll get you to the orange line. You’ll figure it out from there.” She adds, and the duo arms their guns and treads carefully onwards.

I’ll do another detail check here. “What do they find?”: Focus Thread: Investigate occult rituals in Ocano Point: Offensively Small

Q: Is a small humanoid shaman there?
A: Yes

So it’s a short goblin.

Q: Are there more goblins with him?
A: Yes

Q: Are there any humans alongside?
A: Exceptional yes, and random event.

I take that exceptional yes means that they’re collaborators as well as victims.

Before resolving the random event I’ll set up the scene a bit.

As the armed duo takes the second junction to the right, they hear speech. Human tongues and non-human tongues exchanging words in an unknown language. They also hear screams for help in what sounds clearly as human.
Closing in, they see several short gaunt figures armed with crude weapons, bashing around some men and women, who clearly seem captured.
What catches their attention though is a goblin – that’s what they make of the humanoid figures – shorter than the rest, wearing a tall hat as if to appear larger than what it is. He’s carrying a staff on one hand, with a green glowing orb on top, and a serrated dagger on the other. Next to him is a human, with whom he seems to have a proper conversation.
All around the room are similar fusions of bodies to the ones she saw over at Ocano Point. What is nauseating is that some of these bodies seem to be still moving, albeit like a headless chicken moves.

Let’s resolve the Random Event now: NPC Positive: Goblins: Assist Jealousy

Two of the goblins seem to be antagonizing each other as they bring a prisoner to the shaman. He laughs and tells them something in their dark speech which only makes them more furious, and they each cut off the limbs of their victim and present them to their leader. The victim, as if under the influence, screams but doesn’t try to move.

I deem that’s a good time for a good old Spirit check.

Athen: Spirit (d6): 5, 4: Success
German: Spirit (d4): 3: Failure: Vigor (d6): 5: Success. German is Shaken.

Let’s see if Athen notices her teammate’s status
Athen: Notice (d6): 2,4: Success

German, almost pukes at the gross sight. He barely holds it inside. As Athen was ready to barge guns blazing, she pauses, and instead tries to get in a vantage point, hiding in the shadows.

Athen: Stealth (d6): 3,5: Success

Now German must make another Spirit roll: 2: Failure

Athen aims at the goblins, while German still tries to force himself to look at the monsters. In the meantime, the shaman takes the two hands and places them together in a pile of flesh, and starts mumbling some dark spell, while sparks of green light flow from his staff to the pile.

Athen looks carefully to the man next to the shaman, see if she recognizes him under the dim light.
Athen: Notice (d6): 9,5: Success with a Raise.

Q: Does she recognize him? (Likely)
A: Yes, and Random Event.

Q: Is it dirty official?
A: No, then it must be Holbrook Alcantar

Q: Is it Holbrook? (Sure Thing)
A: Yes

Random Event: Close a thread: Investigate third eye drug exchange: Overindulge Representative

She recognizes the man to be their target, Holbrook Alcantar, the person who was in league with Morikai.
Holbrook watches the shaman cast his spell, then, as he finishes, he opens up his briefcase, full of pills. He kneels and presents it to the shaman. The goblin smiles sardonically and passes his hand over the pills, while spewing spit and words. The pills then start glowing green, like the ones Athen saw at the drug exchange. That’s the source.

Q: Do the goblins go pick another victim?
A: Yes

The antagonizing goblin guards smile and walk back to the prisoners, while Athen waits for Kennet to recover. She can’t wait forever.

Now German must make another Spirit roll: 15: Success with two Raises.

Kennet takes a few deep breaths. And looks back at the scene and Athen, who gestures for him to open fire.

I’ll try to get some numbers down for the combat.
Goblins (1d6+2): 3 + the shaman
Prisoners (1d10+1): 4
Room size: 36
Distance to goblins: 21

Q: Is there another exit?
A: Yes, at the back of the room

Round 1: Athen+Kennet 8S, Goblins 7H, Shaman+Holbrook 6C

Athen 1 shot at each goblin: Shooting (d10),-2: 2,3,8,1: 1 Success: 10/4: Wounded: Goblin 3 is down
Kennet 2 & 1 shot at each goblin: Shooting (d6),-2: 5,1,2: Miss
Goblin 1: runs to Athen: 10: Distance 11
Goblin 2: runs to Kennet: 6: Distance 15
Goblin Shaman: 2 bolts at Athen, 1 bolt at Kennet: Spellcasting (d10),-2: 9,9,7,4: Success, Success, Success: 2, 19, 5: Athen is Wounded Twice: Benny: Soak Roll: 3,7: Success: 1 Wound removed.

Q: Does Holbrook flee? (Likely)
A: Exceptional No. He also pulls his pistol and shoots.

Holbrook: Shoots Kennet: Shooting (d4),-4: 7: Miss

Round 2: Athen+Kennet 6H, Goblins QS, Shaman+Holbrook 8C
Goblin 1: runs to Athen: 9: Distance 2
Goblin 2: runs to Kennet: 6: Distance 9
Goblin Shaman: Zombie: Spellcasting (d10): Success: 1 Zombie is risen for 1 hour
Holbrook: Shoots Kennet: Shooting (d4),-4: 3: Miss
Athen Spirit (d6): 10, 4: Not Shaken & Acts: Quick Draw Pistol: Double Tap Goblin 1: 7,1: Hit: 14/4: Wounded: Goblin 1 is down
Kennet shoots FA at Goblin 2: Shooting (d6),-2: 5,5,3: Miss

Round 3: Athen+Kennet AS, Goblins 5S, Shaman+Holbrook KH
Athen: Double Tap Goblin Shaman: Shooting (d10),-2: 2,4: Miss: Benny: 6,1: Hit: 6/4: Shaken
Kennet shoots FA at Goblin 2: Shooting (d6),-2: 2,5,2: Miss
Goblin Shaman: Spirit (d8): 7,2: Success: Not Shaken
Holbrook: Shoots Kennet: Shooting (d4),-4: 3: Miss
Goblin 2: runs to Kennet: 7: Distance 2

Round 4: Athen+Kennet 10D, Goblins 10C, Shaman+Holbrook 2S
Athen: Double Tap Goblin Shaman: Shooting (d10),-2: 7,3: Hit: 14: 2 Wounds: Soak Roll: Vigor (d4): 7,5: Success: 1 Wound
Kennet: shoots FA at Goblin 2: Shooting (d6),-2: 2,5,2: 10: Success with a Raise: Hit: 33/4: Goblin 2 is down
Goblin Shaman: Spirit (d8): 7,2: Success: Not Shaken
Holbrook: Shoots Kennet: Shooting (d4),-4: 3: Miss
Zombie: runs to Kennet: 7: Distance 14

Round 5: Athen+Kennet AH, Shaman+Holbrook KC
Athen: Close in 6, SA Goblin Shaman: Shooting (d10),-3: 7,1: Hit: 8: 1 Wound
Kennet: Reloads
Goblin Shaman: Spirit (d8): 2,3: Shaken
Holbrook: Shoots Kennet: Shooting (d4),-4: 1: Miss
Zombie: runs to Kennet: 9: Distance 5

Round 6: Athen+Kennet AD, Shaman+Holbrook 2H
Athen: Close in 6, Reload
Kennet: shoots FA at Zombie: Shooting (d6),-2: 3,3,5: Miss
Goblin Shaman: Spirit (d8): 2,1: Shaken
Holbrook: Shoots Kennet: Shooting (d4),-4: 5: Miss
Zombie: runs to Kennet: 10: Distance Close

Round 7: Athen+Kennet JH, Shaman+Holbrook KD
Goblin Shaman: Spirit (d8),-2: 9,9: Not Shaken
Holbrook: Shoots Athen: Shooting (d4): 5: Hit: 9/8: Shaken
Zombie: attacks Kennet: Fighting (d6): 4: Miss
Athen Spirit (d6): 17, 5: Not Shaken & Acts: Double Tap Goblin Shaman: Shooting (d10): 6,4: Hit: 12: 2 Wounds. Goblin Shaman is down.
Kennet clubs the zombie with the SMG: Fighting (d6): 5: Hit: 12/7: Wounded: Zombie is down

Round 8: Athen+Kennet JS, Holbrook 9D

Kennet attempts to make Holbrook surrender: Intimidation (d6): 5: Success

Q: Does Holbrook surrender? (Likely)
A: Yes

They start shooting off their submachineguns. Bullets spraying everywhere. The loud bangs echoing in the sewers. The flash of the gun barrels is evident, and as the first goblin falls under the hail of fire, the two others run towards the intruders.
The goblin shaman points his staff towards them and green bolts fly off, one of them hitting Athen right in the chest, piercing the kevlar and wounding her.
Holbrook, trying to show off to his friends doesn’t run away, instead he pulls out a small .22, and crouched, he starts shooting back.
Athen grouches, and despite her wound, she stands up, drops the submachinegun and pulls her pistol. She puts two into another goblin, advancing towards her.
Kennet keeps shooting at full auto, missing by a long shot, while the goblin closes in.
The goblin shaman casts another spell. This time he aims at the pile, and a shambling flesh creation is animated and starts walking to the party.
Athen shoots the shaman again, and again and again, walking towards the little bastard who is suppressed. One by one her bullets find their targets, and after putting a fresh clip in the chamber, a bullet blows his brains out.
At the other side, German has emptied a whole clip, and it is by sheer luck that he managed to kill the charging greenskin. He understands his limitations, so when the animated zombie comes at him, he just uses the submachinegun as a makeshift club. Bashing the abomination’s head again and again until it stops moving.
The group then turns their attention to Holbrook. Bloody angry faces, they aim their weapons at him.
“Drop it!” German growls to Holbrook. “Unless you wanna join your friends in Warp Heaven.”
Holbrook looks back at the exit, but he knows he’s missed his chance. He drops his pistol and surrenders.

They tie him up and look around for anything else, before starting the interrogation.

Athen: Notice (d6): 9,4: Success with a Raise.

Q: Is there anything of interest?
A: Yes
Q: What is it? (Detail Check)
A: Focus PC: Miserably Interesting

Athen finds that the victims were mostly run down people. The poor and the downtrodden. But what raises the interest of Athen is that she finds several IDs belonging to military or security personnel. It seems that the goblins aimed at both the people noone would notice, as well as the people that would defend Morieva. Maybe the tainted wheat she read in the messages was tainted with this drug substance.

I will try out the Behavior Check of MV2 now, as Athen and German interrogate their prisoner.

Holbrook Alcantar
Identity: Corrupt official, goblin collaborator
Personality: Roughly familiar
Activity: Lie dispute
Disposition: Passive (-2)
Theme: Interrogation
NPC Action 1: NPC Action: NPC Action 2: Talks, Exposition

Haha, sometimes Mythic’s results fit in perfectly. I rolled a descriptor here, but as expected it made no sense, and since I have all the information I need, I’ll disregard it, and run along the conversation.

German puts his gun on the collaborator’s head, while Athen kicks the dropped .22 away.
“Start talking.” He demands.
“Alright, alright. We bring placebo pills to the goblins and they warp them to make the recipients suitable subjects.” He starts saying.
“To what end? Who else is involved?” Athen asks.

NPC Action 1: NPC Continues
Q: Are there others involved?
A: Exceptional Yes
Q: To what end? (Detail Check)
A: Postpone Death

Holbrook laughs. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, right? We’re everywhere. The cream of the cream of Morieva’s administration.”
German hits him with the end of his gun. “Why?”
“Oh but for what else? Immortality. You see wicked magics, we see untapped potential. We can live forever.” Holbrook laughs again.
“What do the goblins get out of it?” She asks.

NPC Action 1: NPC Action: NPC Action 2: Acts Out of PC Interest

Q: What do the goblins get out of it? (Detail Check)
A: Haggle Plans

“They have plans. A grand strategy for all the world. But now we get to negotiate with them. We get to be part of their strategy. All because you managed to defeat them in the wars. We have to thank you for that Ranger.” Holbrook replies.
Athen shudders that the man knows she served in the wars as a ranger. That could be deduced of course, but is it possible that he knows more about her? Are the hunters infiltrated by collaborators?
“What plans?” She demands.

NPC Action 1: NPC Continues +2: Gives Something: Debase Plot

“Morieva is but the beginning. Once we’re successful, more will follow. We will take control of the city. The next war is going to be from the inside. By the time they realize what is happening, it will be too late.” Holbrook adds.
“Names. Start giving names.” German says.

NPC Action 1: Theme Action

He will give them 2d6 names: 10. Politicians, officers, corporate suits.

Q: Is Col. Faulkner between them? (No Way)
A: Yes, Random Event: NPC Negative: German Kennet: Inquire Intrigues

Donjon: Bryana Graydon, female journalist. Bryana is common in appearance, with blonde hair and gray eyes. She wears a casual skirt and blouse and cloche hat. Bryana is calm and impartial.

Among the names there is Bryana Graydon, a female journalist. The moment German listens to her name, he steps back, as if hit by a truck. Holbrook continues, and also tells them about Col. Faulkner. Athen feels the ground beneath her disappear. Noone to trust. Nowhere. They look at each other. Holbrook smiles.
“He’s lying!” German shouts. “They know about us and he’s lying to shake us.” He aims his pistol at Holbrook.
“We can’t take the risk.” Athen replies. “We must find out if he’s telling the truth. Even if we waste precious time.” Tie him up. He’s coming with us.

Chaos Factor remains at 6. The characters are in control of their immediate surrounding, but it seems the whole world is against them.

I’m adding Bryana Graydon to the list.

The third eye thread as well as the ocano point investigation thread are closed, and only the main thread remains.

The next scene will have Col. Faulkner invited to Athen’s appartment and try to find out if he’s telling the truth.

Is the scene modified? Yes: Altered Scene: Faulkner will arrive with muscle.

It hasn’t been long since Athen hang up the phone call with Col. Faulkner. She explained to him that she had to see him in person for an urgent matter, with discretion, as she couldn’t trust the phone lines for possible hacking.
Holbrook is tied up and gagged in one end of the room, and German is watching him for any attempt to escape.
Is he fooling with them? Lying and trying to throw dust in their eyes? Or enjoys telling them the truth, certain that they can’t do anything to alter the course of the upcoming events. The collaborators are not known for their tongues to roll so easily. Yet, she’s been shaken, and watches out of the window, waiting for the Colonel to arrive.
Then he sees him, come, in full uniform. Alongside with him are two more unis.
“Shit.” Athen mumbles. ‘What could this mean?’
She grabs her sidearm and turns to German. “We’ve got company. The colonel is here, but not alone.”
They put Holbrook right in the middle of the room, open the door, and take positions, out of line of sight, at the sides of the room.

There are several explanations as to why the Col. arrived with security, so the best thing to do is a detail check.

Q: What is their reaction when they see Holbrook?
A: Attainment the public
The what now?

Okay. So public… Holbrook is a public servant. They try to grab him.

Q: Does Holbrook try to warn them about the armed captors?
A: Yes

Crap. The worst case scenario. There’s only a very slight chance they’re not allies.

I’ll make an opposed Notice vs Stealth roll.
5 Notice vs 10,7 Stealth. Athen succeeded with a Raise.

The bodyguards, followed by the Colonel, arrive outside the apartment and see the open door and Holbrook tied and gagged. They rush towards him, disregarding his attempts to warn them of the ambush.
As they reach him they hear the sound of guns cocked.
“Alright boys, put your toys down and play nicely.” Athen warns them, having the upper hand.

Q: Do they attack?
A: No
Q: Do they draw?
A: No

The men are caught by surprise and turn to face their ambushers, but don’t draw their weapons, fearing for their lives.
“Is this what I see true? My eyes aren’t failing me? Certainly I thought my ears where failing me when the Captain told me about you. Have you gone out of your mind completely Smarte? Kidnapping a city official?” The colonel yells from the hall outside.
“Found him in the sewers kissing some goblin cheeks. He confessed. Your name came up.” She replies from inside.

I’m a bit indecisive about the tools to use right now. I could do a behavior check, but I’m gonna see what UNE gives first.

Conversation mood: Guarded
Bearing: Hostile, Destruction
Focus: Future action

Q: Does he threaten?
A: Yes

“You’re on a path to self destruction Athen. Your career is over, I hope not your life too. Put your gun down and I’ll make sure you get a psycheval. Avoid the court martial and all that crap. For old times sake.” Col. Faulkner threatens.
“I sincerely had hoped that you were not involved, Colonel.” Athen says and shoots the men in the legs.

Athen: Shooting (d10),+2: 8,4: Success: 13/6: Wounded

Q: Does German follow her lead? (Likely)
A: Yes

German: Double tap: Shooting (d6),+3: 7: Success: 11/6: Wounded

German also double taps the man he had at gunpoint, right on the leg. The two men drop screaming.
“You’re done for Smarte!” The Colonel screams from outside.

I think this is a breaking point for Smarte. She’s no killer, but she knows the threat Holbrook represents. She doesn’t want him to continue operating and he must pay for what he’s done so far.
Yet she knows she can’t keep dragging him around as the latest events will turn her and Kennet into fugitives.
It’s one of the cases where I won’t decide for my protagonist but I will roll a Spirit test. If she fails, she will execute Holbrook.

Spirit (d6): 1,2: Failure

Athen: Head Shot: Shooting (d10): 9,8: Success with a Raise: 14/5: Wounded. Holbrook is dead.

Athen motions for Kennet to follow her outside from, jumping from the window, as the colonel may be overwatching the apartment exit.
Before she does so, she takes a good look at the corrupt collaborator. She’s filled with all the suppressed emotions from the war. This man has betrayed all her sisters and brothers to make humanity safe again. Without thinking much, she puts a bullet in his head, right between the eyes.

Q: Can they jump down?
A: Exceptional Yes.

At arms length from her apartment’s window there is the fire escape.
They get out and make a run for German’s car. They have to escape Morieva and lay low.
As the car flees to safe distance, Athen can’t shake the recent revelations from her head.
“Hey partner.” German tells her. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll go to another city, find some support and expose these traitors.”
“You’re right…partner.” She responds. Her gaze in the mirror, looking back.

Okay. Time to close up the scene.
Chaos Factor still at 6.
Holbrook is removed from the Character List.
All previous threads are closed.
New threads: Escape Morieva, Expose Collaborators
Athen and Kennet both get the Wanted Hindrance.

Q: Does the Escape from Morieva warrant it’s own scene?
A: No

I’m gonna do a Zoomed out scene of the escape.
Kennet: Streetwise (d6): 3: Failure
Athen: Stealth (d6): 5,4: Success

So, they don’t switch vehicles or find any support from the underground, but they manage to lay low, avoiding highways and get out of Morieva.

I’ll be closing the session and season here. I’m going to give Athen an Advancement: Marksman. I’m also going to make German a Wild Card.

Session Summary

I found this session to be so interesting! Even though at some times I felt like I was circling around the same obstacle, without managing to pinpoint it, in the end the reason was clear.
The threat was revealed to be much bigger than anything Athen could have faced at once.
And what better way to close up the season, than with the bad guys winning, and darkness taking a piece of my protagonist’s soul!
I really enjoyed the convo that was driven by the Behavior Check, and in general found MV2 to be so much faster and streamlined than core Mythic GME.
Overall Mythic really held its ground and did what it was meant to: provide a coherent story structure upon which to run my adventure. I’ll definitely be using it in the future, or a mix/hack of it.

Season Summary

This story started with a lot of questionmarks, and as it went onwards it failed many times to provide the necessary drive. I’ve used several different tools, but due to a wrong approach based on the situation, it kept failing.
Success (from a solo RPG perspective) came with the use of Mythic, which I was avoiding, due to my preference for a Player Driven approach.
Keeping an open mind is important when trying out solo tools. I found out that I shouldn’t constrain myself depending on what I think I might like.
I’m leaving the first season of A Monster’s Bounty with a nice feeling, and I look forward to picking it up again later!
giorgis 9:11 pm on September 1, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Mythic ( 3 ), SavageWorlds ( 18 ), Solo ( 93 )
A monster’s bounty – A weird cyberpunk fantasy adventure – S1E07
Brief summary: Lt. Athen Smarte is a Hunter. Solitary warriors who hunt down and dispatch warp monsters. In the last session she was shut down from investigating certain leads and hit a few dead ends.

Note: I had messed up the numbering of my sessions, and had to rectify it.

I was eager to add a combat advancement after last session, but since she didn’t see any action I decided to up her Persuasion and Healing skills instead.

Now for the next scene Athen will go to the base R&D team and talk with them and search the database, with regards to occult warp rituals.

Before this all starts we gotta check if the scene is modified in any way.

Is Scene Modified? : 5 against 6: Altered Scene.

I’m quite at a loss of how this scene is altered. Maybe something has happened to the database. I’ll ask the oracle.

Q: Is the database damaged?
A: Yes

Athen heads over to the library. She turns on the computer, and it flashes before her eyes, then the screen dies out.
“Who’s in charge here?” She yells.

Q: Does someone answer?
A: Yes
Q: Is it someone she already knows?
A: Yes

Cpt. Jaenke walks in from behind a desk. “I’m on active duty Smarte. What’s wrong?”
“The computer it died out. We need to call the service.” She responds.

Now, I’m gonna use UNE to set the conversation mood: cautious.

“What do you want to look for? Maybe I can help.” He asks.
Athen is still forthcoming, so she answers “I wanted to take a look for the occult rituals I saw over at Ocano Point. Mao Hsai…”
“Mao Hsai has taken over the base and it’s over now. No politics. Remember?” He answers.

Let’s see his bearing and focus: suspicion, and fame.

“Why are you so bent on this case Smarte? Mao Hsai got to you? are you on their payroll. Wanna take the quick road to fame? You know it ends in death.” He caps up his sermon.
Athen is quite speechless. “No, no sir.” she says.
The Captain seems to think if he’s going to let off another warning, but Athen gets out before he does.

She feels pissed off. First Taro, now the Captain seem to have their sights on her. Maybe she should go rogue and abandon the guild altogether. “Shit!” she yells, when she’s behind the barracks.

Q: Does anyone listen?
A: Yes, and it’s the worst possible person. Taro.

She hears laughter from the corner, and voila, Taro emerges. “What happened Smarte? life treating you well?” he snarks.
“Shut your trap Taro. You wanna put your money where your mouth is? now’s the time. Just you and me.” Athen taunts him.

Q: Does Taro engage?
A: Yes, and, he pulls a knife.

“Oooh the little brat wants to get her ass kicked? I’m gonna leave you another mark on the face.” Taro says, raising his fist, and unseathing his combat knife.
“The wyvern was pretier than you, asshole.” Athen replies as she runs her finger down her scar. She pulls her knife too, and the two of them begin their combat dance.

Last time I had introduced Taro, he had the following results from UNE:

Himeya “Assassin” Taro: Male Mercenary. Taro is thin, with blonde hair and bright amber eyes. He has a military cybernetic arm and carries an assault rifle. Taro is addicted to the street drug PBZ-3.
UNE: NPC Power Level: Much stronger
UNE: delightful conscript, offend poverty
UNE: NPC Bearing: fear, NPC Conversation Focus: weapons
I also recall he has a cybernetic left arm.

So reading these I need to ask.
Q: Is Taro currently high?
A: Yes, extremely.

I will roll on the Event descriptors to see if I can get some insight on the effects of the drug.
I get Carelessness Energy. Okay, so he will get a -1 penalty to anything Agility and Smarts related, and a +1 bonus to anything Strength and Vigor related.

Round 1:
Initiative: Athen KC, Taro 9H

Athen: Fighting (d6): 4,7: Success: 12: Success with a Raise: Wounded.

As Taro closes in, and tries to lunge, Athen steps on the side, evades his trajectory, and stabs his weapon arm right between the fingers. He screams, drops his knife and clutches his wounded hand.
Athen steps behind him, her knife at his throat.
“Do as much as look at me next time, and it won’t be just your hand I’ll stab.” She punches him and walks away.
‘That felt good.’ She thinks as she leaves the base. ‘That felt really good.’ She knows Taro won’t tell anyone. He’s too proud and haughty to admit he’s been beaten.

I consider that Chaos Factor remains at 6.

Her sources at Vertden FOB burned, and with the increasing hostility, Athen will attempt to find Mr Kennet. See what he wanted to talk about. The next scene will play out in Morikai Bread Factory. There she might find Kennet’s employment’s records to find his home address.

Is the scene modified? 10 against 6: No

Athen arrives at Morikai Bread Factory. The receptionist is surprised to see her again.
“Mr Morikai’s life might be in danger.” She explains. “Has Mr Kennet been here?” She asks.

Persuasion (d6): 4,2: Success.

Q: Has Mr Kennet been there?
A: Yes
Q: Is he still there?
A: No
Q: Was Mr Morikai with him?
A: No

“Yes Ms Smarte. Mr Kennet passed by earlier today, alone.” The lady answers.
“Could you provide me his home address? It’s a matter of urgency.” Athen presses on.

Persuasion (d6): 1,2: Failure: Benny: 2,2: Failure.

“Sorry. I cannot give any private information to a third party. Especially one concerning Mr Morikai’s security detail.” The receptionist is adamant.
“Can you call him then? Connect me to him? I must talk to him.” she counters.

Persuasion (d6+1): 6, 12: Success with two raises.

“I’ll be happy to.” The receptionist smiles.

Q: Does Mr Kennet answer?
A: No

Let’s see if Athen saw the dialed in number.

Notice (d6): 3,9: Success with a raise.

As the receptionist dials in the numbers, Athen notes down mentally. 774-372-813.
A minute later. The receptionist shakes her head. “He’s not answering madam. You’ll have to drop by later.”
Athen smiles, and steps out. She heads to the nearest public terminal and plugs in the information, see if she can find the home address.

Q: Is the address belonging to the number available?
A: Extreme No.

Athen tries to find the home address belonging to the phone address, but not only she can’t find anything, the number returns back as invalid. Did the receptionist just con her into believing she had called?
Athen pretends she forgot something to get past security, storms back into the bread factory, and pulls her gun at the receptionist.

Intimidation (d4-2): 1,5 vs 4: Success.

The receptionist is startled, and raises her hands up.
“You lying bitch. What are you hiding? Why did you lie to me?” Athen demands.

Q: Did Kennet tell her so? (Likely)
A: Yes

“He told me to! Please don’t hurt me! He told me if anyone came asking to drive them away.”
“Where is he? Is he inside?” Athen continues.

Q: Is Kennet inside? (Likely)
A: Yes

The receptionist nods. Athen motions her with the pistol to move on.
“Lead the way and open the door so that he doesn’t expect me. Signal him and you die.” She adds.
They head upstairs and she opens the doors to Mr Morikai’s office.

Q: Is Mr Morikai there as well? (Likely)
A: Extreme yes.

As the receptionist enters first, Athen pushes her to the side, to reveal herself. She comes upon the sight of a gagged and bound Mr Morikai. German next to the desk searching the files.
Morikai tries to talk, his eyes begging for Athen to save him.
German is taken by surprise.

Q: Does German have his weapon on him?
A: Yes
Q: Does he try to reach for it? (Unlikely)
A: No

“You!” She says at the reception. “Go to the corner and don’t make a sound.”
“You!” She says at Mr Morikai. “You’ll have your chance to explain yourself.”
“You!” She says at Mr Kennet. “Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

I’ll use UNE for the conversation mood: Forthcoming
NPC Bearing: Investigation
NPC Focus: Current Story

Let’s see also for how long is German working for Morikai (d100): average amount of time

“That’s what I’m trying to find out! I’ve been working for the big guy for five years now. He’s always been a little weird, but those last couple months he’s been too weird.” German explains and Athen gestures to him with the pistol to go on.
“He never cared much for the workers, I know this much. I don’t care either. But when they started disappearing it was as if it was work as usual.” He sighs. “The he had some more meetings, some folks I had never heard of before. Late at night, with none of the usual folks.”

Q: Does German have some evidence? Something that sparked off his behavior? (Likely)
A: Yes

“For security reasons it is I that take of the paper trash from his office to the shredder. One day I found this piece of paper.” He puts his hand in his pocket.
“Slowly.” Athen says to him.
“This writing ain’t human.” He continues as he removes a crumbled paper from his pocket and lays it open on the desk.
Athen closes in and sees the evidence.

Q: Is it similar to the writing in Ocano Point?
A: Yes

“That’s orcwrit. That’s for sure.” She says. “Alright. I’m gonna trust you now. I’ll stop pointing this at you. You gotta trust me too and don’t try anything stupid. I don’t care what the guild says. I wanna get to the bottom of this. Humans are dying, grossly.”

At first I decided to ask the Oracle and roll, but the I realized it makes NO sense for German to go against her at this point. So I used my GM-Muscles and took over.

German nods. “I believe he’s in league with some orcs or collaborators. It must be part of a bigger plan, because of all the meetings. I took him here to see if there’s anything else in his desk that could help my investigation, and then you arrived. He ain’t speaking though, and believe me I tried.”
“They never do speak. Even back in the war. I think they fear their masters more than us. Heck I would too.” Athen explains.
“What should we do with him?” German asks.
“Bring the worker’s rep here. Tell him who’s to blame for the missing workers. Then deliver Mr Morikai to them. Let them work it out.” Athen proposes and Morikai’s eyes widen with anxiety.

Q: Does German agree to that?
A: Extreme yes

German turns to the recepionist. “You heard Ms Smarte, call the worker’s rep.”
A short while later, the factory boss is delivered to the workers, and Athen and German don’t look back.
They have more important things to do, like find more evidence.

Q: Is the desk locked?
A: No
Q: Do they find anything of interest?
A: Yes
Q: Is it a document?
A: Yes, Random Event: PC Positive: Carry Adversities.
Q: Is the document in orcwrit?
A: Yes

Searching through the desk drawers they find another piece of paper, sporting the same writing in unknown language. “We’ll need to take this to an expert.” Athen says.
“Alright.” German replies. “Hey, look. I just want you to know we’re in this together, wherever this goes. I hate the darn creatures. Lost some of my own people to them, and I will never rest knowning they’re out there still hurting us. Whatever we face will doing this job. I have your back.” He confesses.

I interpreted the Carry Adversities result, in that she has now someone to help see this through.

Athen smiles in a ‘thank you’ manner. “Let’s take the datacomp with us as well. We can get this to a hacker to get us in. Maybe we’ll find a contact there to follow.” She says, changing the topic. She had never been big on words.

I’m adding German’s stats at the bottom of the post for reference purposes.

I’m removing Mr Morikai from the Characters List.
I just realized that Chaos must always move up or down. Okay, so in this case the PCs where in control of the scene, therefore Chaos Factor is now at 5.
I’m renaming a Thread to investigate the orc collaborator conspiracy.

After a discussion in the mythic gme discord, it was brought to my attention that I can ask the Oracle if a specific situation warrants a scene, or just happens in downtime (Thanks @Thessius!)

Q: Should I run a scene concerning finding an orcwrit expert to translate the documents?
A: Extreme Yes

So this should be an important scene, which should move the story forward.

The scene will have to do with Athen and German hanging around in some sleazy bar, waiting for German’s contact to show up.

Is the scene modified? 9 vs 5: No.

German: Streetwise (d6): 8: Success with a raise.

The Ace of Spades, not the most safe spot to get your drink in Morieva at night. Nevertheless that’s where German brought her, claiming he knows people there.
They grab a seat at a small round table in the rear, order a couble of cold ones, and German goes to the bar. He exchanges a few words with the barman, and returns.
“We got lucky.” Seems my friend knows the right person, they’re gonna meet us here.

Q: Does the contact show up alone?
A: Yes

Let’s hit donjon to get some information about this NPC.
Jasper Catlow: Male Doctor. Jasper is willowy, with short golden hair and hazel eyes. He wears a casual suit and glasses with dark rims. Jasper speaks with a strange accent.

UNE: pragmatic recluse
Motivation: blight industry (?)
Mood: neutral
Bearing: secrets
Focus: future action

Introductions are made, and Dr. Catlow gets to the point.
“I’m told you have some non-human scripts.” He eyes the two carefully. His accent is snobbish.
“Well then show me.” He adds.
Athen carefully pulls out the two documents.

Q: Does he ask to be paid?
A: Yes. 80 silver dollars.

Now I did some reading of my previous posts to see if I had any reference to a unit of wealth and in a quick skim I didn’t find any. I decide that having a silver dollar coin would be a nice thematic addition to the setting.

Athen has the necessary funds to not require a wealth die roll. Nevertheless she will try to barter a little.

Persuasion (d6): 2,3: Failure

“It will be 80 silver. For my time.” He says.
“Hey you don’t get to look at these all the time, how about 60?” Athen says.
“You know anyone else who can read these? Don’t waste my time and you won’t waste your money.” He counters. Athen gives him the coin, and waits eagerly for the translation.

I’ll take a step further and decide that the NPC motivation which was blight industry, doesn’t refer to Catlow, but to the documents.

Q: Do both documents refer to the same matter?
A: Extreme No. They’re completely unrelated, maybe different author as well.
Q: Does the second document refer to the occult rituals?
A: Yes
Q: Does the first document (blight) industry have any drug reference?
A: No
Q: Does the second?
A: Extreme yes
Q: How well does Catlow translate?
A: a bit below average.

Dr. Catlow reads the first document again and again. “Okay, this one is quite generic. It refers to some of the most important industries of Morieva and how they’re a target. Something about ‘under, attack’ can’t understand much more.”
“This one” he says as he reads through the second, “seems to be written with a different paint. The size of the letters is also different. It’s talking about performing rituals… and that the subjects must be prepared with substances for a long period of time. Something about a third eye. I can’t make much sense. That’s the main problem with orcwrit. The words are there, but their concepts are so much different than ours.”
Suddenly it all made sense to Athen. The puzzle pieces fit in one by one. Collaborators are working with orcs to prepare the human subjects for warp magic rituals. The new drug on the streets is all part of their plan. At the same time they’re trying to undermine the infrastructure of Morieva. Maybe they’re using the sewers? Like in the bread factory. She still fails to see to what end all this is happening. One thing is for certain. The people of Morieva are in danger and they must investigate further.
She thanks Dr. Catlow for his services and once he’s gone, she shares her concerns with German.

Q: Does the bodyguard agree with her? (Likely)
A: Extreme Yes

German Kennet listens carefully. “You’re absolutely right Athen! We must find out more, you say you have a hacker we can take this datacomp to? Maybe we should take a look before jumping into the sewers.”
Athen nods, and goes outside to call Quinn.

Q: Does she find Quinn?
A: Yes
Q: Is he available to work on the datacomp?
A: No.

Persuasion (d6): 5,4: Success

She calls Quinn from a payphone. He ain’t happy to hear her voice. “I don’t want to work with you. Can we just forget we met?” He says over the phone.
“Nothing like last time. I just have a datacomp for you to hack into. Find me a few contacts. Routine boring hacking stuff.” She tries to calm him.
“Alright alright, but it will cost you silver.” Quinn agrees.

So, both threads are progressing, none is resolved yet. I’m adding Dr. Jasper Catlow to the Character List, and increasing Chaos Factor to 6, as things seem to be moving out of control.

Q: Does the meeting with Quinn warrant a separate scene?
A: Yes

Athen and German will be going to Quinn with the datacomp to look into it.

Is the Scene modified? 3 vs 6: Altered Scene.

Q: Does the meeting take place at the Ace of Spades instead?
A: Extreme No

Okay so I interpret this as meaning that Quinn is a very careful fella and doesn’t want to be in a public place or his own (otherwise it wouldn’t be an altered scene).

So the meeting will take place over at Athen’s apartment.

Athen and German are waiting at the hall, when there’s a knock at the door.
“Who’s there?” Athen asks, by the side of the door.
“It’s me, Quinn.” He answers.
Athen lets him in and he sets up at the kitchen table, failing to find another proper surface.
“Where’s the data comp?” He asks, and German gives him the device.

Q: Is the cost high?
A: No

Quinn connects his personal datacomp to Morikai’s. “It’s gonna set you back 70 silver.” He tells Athen, who puta her hand deep in the pocket to pay him.
“Get on with it.” She responds.

Q: Does Quinn manage to hack the device? (Likely)
A: Yes

With ample time at his disposal and all the tools available, Quinn soon bypasses the security protocols of the personal datacomp.

Q: Are there any contacts that stand out?
A: Extreme Yes.
Let’s turn to UNE: Cultured Magister
So it’s a government official in a position of power, who’s involved. Since this was an Extreme Yes, I take it that there’s undeniable information regarding their involvement.

“So, we’ve got several messages here, back and forth with a fella called Holbrook Alcantar…wasn’t he running for city council?” Quinn lets his words trail off. “What you do with this information is up to you. Anyway, the messages were encrypted, but I’ve managed to decipher them. Take a look and decide. My work here is done. I don’t want to know what happens further.”
German looks at Athen with a ‘can we trust him?’ face. Athen nods, even though she knows not to trust anyone. She’d hate if Quinn ended up in a ditch on her accord. The hacker packs up and leaves.

Q: Does it have to do with the third eye drug?
A: Extreme No. Crap, I was leaning heavily towards this scenario.

I roll on the Events & UNE tables to see if I can get an insight on the content of the messages. I get dominate illness and abduct valor.

So here I am contemplating if should disregard the Extreme No answer above. I mean it fits perfectly. On one hand I want to give leeway to the GM side, on the other I don’t want to write huge blocks of story text arbitrarily without any mechanical input from the game or GME.
After careful thinking I decide to go with it. I’ve considered a way to make it fit, and maybe all the puzzle pieces will click in the end.

One by one they read the messages between Morikai and Alcantar.
It’s evident that Morikai used the factory to deliver tainted wheat products around the city. The messages don’t describe what substances are used to taint the products or what will happen to the consumers, but Alcantar has played his part in delivering said packages to armed forces around Morieva.
“How deep does this go? They have spread their tentacles all over the city!” German sighs.
“We need some contingency. I don’t trust the guild or Mao Hsai. Not anymore.” Athen says.
“We can’t trust the cops or the city either. We don’t know who’s involved. And if we go to the media, the enemy will be alarmed.” He adds.
He mulls it over, but Athen seems not to care. “We’ll copy the files and get a lawyer to release it in the event of our death. I want to follow that Alcantar fella. See where he leads us. I’m gonna call my fixer. Something tells me we’re gonna need to pack more before this thing is over.”

Chaos Factor goes up to 7.
Character List updated with Holbrook Alcantar.
Threads remain the same.

With this scene over I decide to pause the session here.
I’m giving Athen another advancement per Savage Worlds rules. This one will be Quick Draw.

Characters
- Hunters
- Mao Hsai
- Goblins
- Merlin
- Dirty Official
- Quinn
- ~~Michal Morikai~~
- German Kennet
- Dr. Jasper Catlow
- Holbrook Alcantar
Hunters
- Taro
- Col. Leif Faulknen
- Cpt Jaenke
- Konicek
- Girbach
- Quartermaster
Locations
- Vertden FOB
- Home
- Ocano Point
- Gustav’s
- New Gorky
- Old Pictorial
- Morikai Bread Factory
Threads
- Investigate orc collaborators conspiracy (main thread)
- Investigate occult rituals in Ocano Point
- Investigate third-eye-drug exchange
German Kennet: Male Soldier. German is muscular, with short black hair and gray eyes. He wears a grey suit and glasses with gold rims. German is quick-witted and pessimistic.
Race Human
Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d4, Strength d8, Vigor d6
Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Shooting d6, Streetwise d6
Hindrances Curious
Edges Brawler
Pace 6″
Parry 5
Toughness 5
Wealth d6

Session Summary

Maybe the session of this adventure that I enjoyed the most so far. It had mystery, action and suspense.
I absolutely loved the part where an extreme No answer turned the tables to my trail of thought and provided a way for the plot to progress I hadn’t imagined before!
That’s a nice example of how solo play can surprise you.
What I struggled most was my GM side pushing to take the story to one direction and Mythic pulling towards another. This issue existed even in my previous Player Driven gamestyle, but it’s even more pronounced with Mythic, because of the different approach. Mythic requires that you think of the story foremost, so having focused there, you feel the impact more when you have to disregard your imagined scenario.
I’m still going to take the story to wherever Mythic takes me. I’m really curious.
giorgis 5:17 pm on August 30, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Mythic ( 3 ), SavageWorlds ( 18 ), Solo ( 93 )
A monster’s bounty – A weird cyberpunk fantasy adventure – S1E06

Brief summary: Lt. Athen Smarte is a Hunter. Solitary warriors who hunt down and dispatch warp monsters. In the last session, she had left an abandoned military base in a hurry after residual warp magic and corporate goons made her presence too hot.

I thought, what better way to return back to my blog posts, than with a campaign I had abandoned.
After complete lockdown burnout and almost a month of vacations, I’m getting back in the saddle with Athen’s story. This time I’ll take the lessons I’ve learned regarding story drivers and apply them, but also I will try out one of the most popular solo engines out there, Mythic GME. Since I want to understand how it’s supposed to work, I’m not gonna hack it at all, and only resort to additional solo tools (such as UNE or BOLD) if required.

I think Mythic, which is Scene based, will fit perfectly with the vague distances of a cyberpunk city. No more trying to decide how many hours it takes to get from one place to the next. This isn’t some fantasy hex crawl adventure.

I took the time and created a Characters List. I had to make a subtable for the Hunter’s guild, since there’s just too many of them. Even though Taro could reserve special mention.

Characters
- Hunters
- Mao Hsai
- Goblins
- Merlin
- Dirty Official
- Quinn
- Michal Morikai
- German Kennet
Hunters
- Taro
- Col. Leif Faulknen
- Cpt Jaenke
- Konicek
- Girbach
- Quartermaster
I’ve also made a list of locations and threads

Locations
- Vertden FOB
- Home
- Ocano Point
- Gustav’s
- New Gorky
- Old Pictorial
- Morikai Bread Factory
Threads
- Investigate occult rituals in Ocano Point (main thread)
- Investigate third-eye-drug exchange
Also, considering how the party had to turn tail and run, abandoning the scene in the last episode, I deem that the Chaos is high, with Chaos Factor starting at 6.

Now it’s time to set up the first Scene.
I’m considering that Athen will return to Vertden FOB to report back the failure in recovering the data, and also to investigate on the occult ritual remains they discovered on site. She knows that Mao Hsai has gotten to Ocano Point, but that doesn’t mean the potential danger can’t be overlooked.

Is Scene Modified? : 6 against 6: Interrupt Scene.
Event Focus: Ambiguous Event, Attract Animals

Athen has walked a sizeable distance away from Ocano Point. She recalls she has to walk four hours to get to the nearest road to get a cab back. The war has destroyed the entire infrastructure around the base. With her flashlight showing the way, she treads among the ruins back to her destination.
What catches her attention is sounds flickering in the darkness. She is alone, and a pack of beasts, mutated, warped or natural ones, would not be scared off easily.
Alarmed, she draws her sidearm, releases the safety and continues, avoiding closed spaces.

Athen will try to get a glimpse of what kind of creatures are following her.
Notice (d6): 8,4: Success with a raise. I’ll ask two questions.

Q: Is it avians? (50/50)
A: Yes
Q: Are they unnatural? (50/50)
A: No

So it’s either bats or owls. Experience dictates that owls are dead silent in the night, so I’ll go with the bats. With Mythic what is story interesting dictates what follows. There would be no point adding a scene where nothing happens, so I think that even if it’s a natural swarm of bats they could still behave unnaturally, and swoop in on Athen (not harming, but maybe bruises, a fatigue level) if she fails to avoid them. She might even lose her temper and fire off a blast with her pistol, possibly alerting other, more nefarious creatures.

Winds flapping about, Athen realizes its a swarm of bats. Filthy flying rodents she thinks.
Suddenly, the swarm changes direction, and flies directly on to her, and she tries to jump out of the way.

Agility (d8): 6,5: Success.

Athen dodges the swarm, as the bats turn again for another swoop. What the…

Agility (d8): 17, 1: Success with three raises.

Athen jumps out of the way, does a barrel roll, and gets in a shallow concrete ditch. The bats seem to be unable to detect her in the night. They do a couple more passes, and fly away.
Shocked, Athen can’t seem to get out of her head, why would creatures so low in the food chain try to hurt her.
Did it have to do with what happened in Ocano Point? Did she get hit by warp magics, or are the animals agitated by something else? intentionally? In any case she keeps her pistol at the ready and walks back in stealth.

Stealth (d6): 9,1: Success with a raise. She leaves the scene safely.

Time to close up the scene. On one hand Athen seemed to handle herself properly, but the whole animals attacking thing seemed chaotic. I deem Chaos Factor remains at 6. No modifications to characters or threads (I deem this bizarre behavior is in the main thread.

Again, next scene will be the return & brief at Vertden FOB.

Is the Scene Modified? 4 against 6: Yes: Interrupt Scene.
Event Focus: NPC Positive: Mao Hsai: Truce Outside.

It’s early morning when Athen finally gets back to where the cab had left them the night ago. The road is empty and deserted as it should be, but the sound of cars approaching gets her attention.
She hasn’t slept for so many hours, and tiredeness starts to kick in.

Q: Is it many cars? (50/50)
A: Yes

As they draw closer, she can see it’s a convoy. 3 armored SUVs rolling in. She tries to hide, but it seems they’re after her, as they brake quickly and do surround her position. She reaches for her sidearm, as the window of the middle SUV slides down.
The red haired man inside takes off his glasses. His silver eyes gaze at Athen.
“That won’t be necessary Ms. Smarte.” He says. “We’ve already talked with your boss. We’ve come to an… agreement. Pity we missed you last night. Would have saved you all the trouble.”
It takes Athen a moment to understand what is going on.

I’m going to use UNE for this conversation, as it seems to be the main focus of the scene.
Conversation Mood: Sociable
NPC bearing: idiocy
NPC focus: relics

“It seems both sides got what they wanted then. You got a nice fancy goblin blade, and in return you won’t try to restore the drives – which were fried any way. Win-win for you.” Athen replies.
“So you did your research after all.” The man says. “You’re stupid if you think all we wanted was one trinket. There’s… more. But rest assured, Mao Hsai has Ocano Point now. You got in, but now, you have got to stay out.”
Athen brandishes a card with her contact information and throws it to the window. “You’re gonna need this. When that sicko warp shaman comes knocking back. Because something tells me that evil, is still live and kicking around Ocano Point.”

Persuasion: 4,3: Success.

The red haired man takes the card. “We already have your contact info Ms Smarte. Mao Hsai is connected. You’d know this if you did your research.” He pauses for a moment. “You’ve seen these… mutilations before?”
“No.” She snaps.
“No?” He asks.
“No, I’m not telling you anything unless you let me help you. Listen you, I don’t give a fuck what you find to make more money. But if you stir up some old-war warp shit, that’s my queue. You want to find out who did this and if they’re gonna do it again? Let me back in, or get out of my way.” Athen replies.

Persuasion: 4, 6: Success. He agrees.

Q: Does he take Athen with him to the base right now?
A: Yes

The window slides back up, and as Athen believes they’re gonna storm off, the door opens. She enters the SUV.
“I thought there were no roads in shape to be driven to Ocano Point.” She says.
“Oh there are none, but we’re going to the helipad. We’re not gonna walk there.” The man smiles. He points to his crew. “I’m Chuo Kai-Hoa. My assistant will prep an agreement that you need to sign on. The place seems to drag you back in Ms Smarte. You can’t escape it.”

Characters: +Chuo Kai-Hoa
Chaos Factor: drops to 5.

I’m thinking the next scene will have to do with Athen doing research back in Ocano Point. With no obstacles, she will have the opportunity to investigate what happened there and if the threat is still active.

Is the Scene Modified? 8 against 5: No.

Athen took a short nap in the helicopter, but still she ain’t close to being rested. She was afraid she’d have lost the opportunity to investigate the base if she asked for a delay. Also it’s best to look at things while they’re fresh, unlike her.

Q: Where there any other macabre findings?
A: Yes

I realize here that in my previous session I should have made a Fear roll. I’ll take the opportunity and make the test now, since Athen revisits the spot, and there are more things to see.

Athen disembarked from the chopper with Chuo and two Mao-Hsai goons. She saw corporate suits everywhere. Some uniformed with guns, others in science robes, running about frantically. The heavily armored troops she saw last night weren’t to be seen anywhere. As soon as the rotor died, and they could make proper conversation, they guided her to the gross piles.
She braces herself for what she is about to relive. As soon as they enter inside the stench overcomes her nostrils.

Q: Does Chuo join in? (Likely)
A: Yes

Chuo puts a napkin over his nose and enters, seemingly unfazed by the visage.
“Ms Beyett here” he says referring to the suit next to him, “will be capturing the scene audiovisually. If you need focus somewhere, tell her.”

Something else I read in the Mythic GME is that you can ask questions regarding world truths. I find that this will help immensely with setting up the world.

Q: Have there been developed warp detection devices?
A: Yes

Athen nods. “Any chance we can get a warp detector? I have this gut feeling that dark magic was at work here.”
Chuo tells the other suit next to him, and he sets off to find it, as Athen starts investigating the site.
She tried to tell herself that seeing these in the light of day would make it less macabre. How wrong she was. She can’t shake the feeling that these people in there where flayed, skinned alive to provide for this experiment. But what causes her nausea, is that she can see that some of the experiments seem to have partially succeeded. She can see that some of the flesh constructs are seamless.

Fear: Spirit (d6): 3,2: Failure: Shaken. Vigor (d8): 5,4: Success.

Athen wants to get out. But she gets a hold of herself. Her hair is standing up. She’s on edge, but she holds her stomach contents together, and gets to the job at hand.

Notice (d6): 5,5: Success.

Q: Is the experiment a recent one?
A: No

At first she thought that whatever happened here was recent, since the flesh constructs seem to be fresh, to the contrary to the mummified rotten piles in the corner of the room.
Then she notices a huge circle marking the floor, under the flesh constructs, made with what else? dried blood. Occult symbols cover it end to end.
She notices a patch of skin that is lying half in the circle and half outside. The part that is inside the circle, is still fresh and preserved, while the part that is outside is dried and gray.
Athen points that out to the corporate suits. “Definitely warp magic at work here. I believe it’s old.”
“Doesn’t warp magic dissipate with the passage of time?” Chuo asks.

I’ll make a common Knowledge roll and if successful I’ll ask for a world truth.
Common Knowledge (d4): 2,3: Failure

“I don’t know how it works. I hunt them down and kill them. Will need to check out the database back in Vertden.” Athen replies.
“Have you vetted the entire base? Is the place secured?” She adds, while at the same time trying to avoid gazing at the corpses, something hard to do as the entire room is covered with it.

Q: Have they secured the place?
A: Yes

“It’s clear. Something else you want to take a look at, or are you done?” Chuo asks.
“Magic has pooled here. I wouldn’t put my guard down… even when uncontrolled by the enemy, it’s known to affect things and people…” Athen counters. “Can we take a look with the warp detector see if there’s anything we might have missed around the base?”
Some time later, a corporate employee with scientist robe arrives with a device on a two wheeled cart, and they start scouring the remains of the camp.

I’ll do a Notice test to see if they get a bonus in finding anything more.
Notice (d6): 5,5: Success
Q: Is there any other pooling of warp magic?
A: Yes
Q: Do they find the pooling of warp magic? (Likely)
A: No

They search the base around with the detector. The contraption blips a couple more times, but nothing serious. Overall it seems that apart from the occult site, the entire place seems warp free.
“I’d like a copy of the footage in that room.” Athen requests to Chuo as she gets back to the helicopter. “Maybe some research in the records will reveal something new.”

Persuasion (d4): 2,5: Success.

“We’ll review it and send you the relevant parts Ms Smarte. Thank you for your cooperation on this matter.” The corporate agent replies.
Athen smiles softly. “Thanks for the ride, and hey, if the shit hits the fan, give me a call.”

I’m not closing up the investigation thread just yet. Athen needs to make sure that everything’s inactive. There’s this gut feeling she has that all is not complete. Maybe it has to do with the bat swarm attack of last night.

I’m keeping the Chaos Factor stable.

Athen will head to Vertden, take a short nap in the barracks, and do the debriefing and research.

Is the Scene Modified? 4 against 5: Interrupt Scene.
NPC Action: German Kennet: Event: Persecute Fears

Q: Is Mr Kennet the subject of persecution?
A: No, therefore he is the object of persecution.

For the subject I’m gonna use UNE for inspiration: titled master. Heck I did not see this coming.

Athen arrives at the gate of Vertden FOB to come upon muscular Mr Kennet holding a man by the rear of his neck, pushing him around in front of the guards. The man is none other than Mr Morikai himself.
“…there was this hunter lady, Ms Smarte. She knows, she will understand!” she hears Kennet saying as she approaches from behind.
“Know what Mr Kennet?” Athen asks in a dominating voice.
German turns around, still holding Morikai who has been bruised quite heavily, most likely assaulted by his bodyguard.
“Ms Smarte! At least I know you aren’t in league with those filthy orcs.” He spits down to the ground in resent. “I was watching him, oh yeah I was watching him… human traitor!” He snaps and punches down Mr Morikai who bends his knees and drops.
“Calm down man. What’s going on?” She asks.
“He… he’s in league with them. That’s why they attacked the factory. When he couldn’t hide their presence any longer he called you, to cover his tracks. ” Kennet answers.
‘A gorkie?.’ Athen thinks. That’s what the orcs called their human collaborators during the war. When the humans had started winning the war, they even faced battalions of them in the battle. They were mostly saboteurs. Few if ever had been taken alive. They always perished one way or another.
The war ended, but the distrust had taken its toll. Witch hunts were set in villages, and many times people were accused and murdered in the name of some cleansing of traitors. More often than not they had nothing to do with it.
“We’ll take him inside Mr Kennet. If the allegations stand true, he sent to be tried. Just bear in mind, we hunt monsters not humans. Not anymore at least.” Athen tells Mr Kennet.

Q: Does Mr Kennet deliver Mr Morikai to Athen? (Likely)
A: No

Haha, okay, he may need some persuading first.

Persuasion: 15,5: Success with two raises.

It seems the diplomatic answer of Athen didn’t convince Mr Kennet.
“He ain’t going anywhere where I can’t see him.” German responds and grabs Mr Morikai by the neck, who tries to mumble something like “please”.
“You’ll come in to give a briefing as well, but you understand that we need to interrogate him alone. There are tests…” Athen lets her voice trail off, to make German’s imagination fill in the gaps.
The bodyguard lets his old boss loose in front of the guards.
“Let’s get them inside, different rooms, guarded. Notify Cpt. Jaenke” She tells them, and they follow.

Q: Does Cpt. Jaenke agree with the questioning process?
A: Extreme No

The Captain enters the holding room, and yells at Athen for good. “We do NOT interfere with human relations unless we’re attacked by a subject. Get them both out of here!”
“They could be…” she tries to say.
“I don’t care! We’re called to hunt a beast. We hunt it. We kill it. We get payed. Politics is what gets guilds closed down, and I as sure won’t go down this road. Get them out. If the muscle wants to kill his boss, let him have at it, I couldn’t care less.” The Captain continues.
Athen hangs her head as the guards escort the two men outside.
Once they’re outside the Captain asks for her briefing regarding Ocano Point, and Athen provides it.

I want to see if the Captain is aware of the Mao Hsai truce.

Notice (d6): 17,1: Success with three raises.

Q: Is the Captain in the loop?
A: Yes

As Athen recollects her memories and provides the briefing to Cpt. Jaenke, she can’t help but notice that he doesn’t seem to pay any attention to her story. As if he already knows.
Not involved in politics captain, right? she thinks to herself. Just the ones that you're not payed for.
When the briefing is over, she hits the bunk for some well deserved rest. Trying to piece all of it together. Questions, questions all over. Too many coincidences involving goblins and their work in the region. If there’s one thing she has learned is that there are no coincidences.
She’s definite that there are goblins working with humans, and there’s warp magic involved in all of this, but they’re all in the hiding and she can’t do anything about it unless she finds hard evidence. She still finds it hard to trust anyone, and the guild doesn’t give her that sense of home. They haven’t embraced her at all. Is it the truth, or is she just depressed? she wonders, as she finally falls asleep.

I’m increasing the Chaos Factor to 6 and adding a thread uncover local orc collaborators. She’s been told not to, but day by day it seems that her relations with the guild worsen.

Also, I’m giving Athen an advancement, per the SW rules.

Session Summary

A breath of fresh air! Mythic seemed to shine in this game style.
First of all, I did some thorough reading of the blue book, and realized that my own personal Player-Driven style wouldn’t play with Mythic well. So I tried to stick as much as possible to the guidelines by the author, and run it completely, Story-first. I was hesitant at first, but it worked perfectly!

What I really enjoyed though was the Scene-based game style of Mythic. This wouldn’t work well in a dungeon crawl or hex crawl or similar game were the timeline is full and there are no gaps, even if the filling is nothing happening and noone encountered. On the other hand it fits perfectly in modern, post modern and urban adventures games. Time to perform tasks is so relevant it doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s like movie time.
So what helped me was imagine the whole session as a movie or tv show episode. (Don’t confuse this with the cinematic style the author states in the book). We go from one scene to the next, where each scene has at least some story-telling importance, and if we need to know what happened in-between scenes, it’s just described within the scene that is playing. Perfect.

Now this isn’t to say that it all worked without a single hitch. I’ve had a few “how to interpret the results” times, but nothing I hadn’t encountered before while solo playing.
Also I can’t help but shake the feeling that some of my scenes are too short. I think dice results play a big role in this matter, and it could be just plain probabilities.

I’m still finding some gaps here and then in my story… who’s on my protagonists’ side, what does she feel about following orders vs helping the fellow man. I find that there are some situations where her character isn’t as defined as I would like to, in order to help me better decide what she does. Maybe she hasn’t decided for herself right now, and she’s just playing along, until it becomes crystal clear to her what destiny (the oracle) has in line for her. She only has to hope it won’t be too late by then.

I like how I’m adding more stuff to the world, and the world-building possibilities of Mythic. As I play more I find that the setting is more post-apoc and less cyberpunk to me, but it could be just the region the events take place.

I’m curious now to find out if the story will evolve as I envision it, or if Mythic will throw me another curveball and take it all in another direction, but overall I really enjoyed the game and Mythic GME.
giorgis 4:02 pm on July 15, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: minis ( 50 ), painting ( 50 )

Miniatures pt50 – Elf and Troll

With the summer becomes increasingly more difficult to focus on the hobby, with it’s heat waves and mental burnout after months of lockdown, I managed to get down and paint a couple miniatures. An Elf Thief with crossbow from Alternative Armies Hordes of the Things range and a Minibits (now Pendraken – odd that they don’t redirect the hyperlink) 15mm Troll (Which is actually a big orc compared to my Demonworld miniatures).

Unfortunately with the new EU customs scheme, I can no longer afford to purchase miniatures from non-EU vendors unless they have applied for the IOSS VAT scheme. To my understanding with this scheme I get to prepay VAT during ordering and the package will pass free through customs.

Thankfully Eureka miniatures has applied for IOSS and there are a few EU based vendors on 15mm that I can try out. Also I picked up a nice lead pile of shame beforehand, in order to be ready for the changes.

Elf Thief

Troll

Name	Initiative
Orban	8+3=11
Ada	10+7=17
Andras	5+9=14/7
Nek1	5+9=14/15
Nek2	5+8=13

Name	Initiative
Orban	8+6=14
Andras	5+9=14
Ghoul	6+5=11

Name	Initiative
Orban	8+10=18
Andras	5+2=7
Ghoul	6+4=10

Name	Initiative
Orban	8+7=15
Ada	10+5=15
Andras	5+3=8
Ghoul	6+1=7

Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice

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giorgis 7:31 pm on July 22, 2019 Permalink | Reply Tags: Solo ( 93 )

A short Roleplaying history

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giorgis 10:29 pm on October 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply Tags: Solo ( 93 ), Witcher ( 2 )

A Call to Glory S06 – The Witcher

The Party

The Adventure

A. Tunnel

B. The First Lair

Round 1

Round 2

C. Jagged Cavern

D. Orc Lair

Round 1 (3)

Round 2 (4)

Round 3 (5)

E. Trapped Room

F. Gnoll Lair

Round 1 (7)

Round 2 (8)

Round 3 (9)

G. Empty Room

H. Broken Room

I. Narrow Tunnel

Round 1

J. The Story Room

K. The Iron Mine

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

L. Tunnel of Death

M. Mysterious Fountain

Round 1 (7)

N. Sloping Passage

O. The Eisenmond Mine

Ending the Adventure

The System

What about the Dungeon Crawl?

Summary

giorgis 9:10 am on October 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply Tags: MERP ( 14 ), Solo ( 93 )

A Call to Glory S05 – MERP

The Party

The Adventure

A. Tunnel

B. The First Lair

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

C. Jagged Cavern

D. Orc Lair

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

E. Trapped Room

F. Gnoll Lair

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

G. Empty Room

H. Broken Room

Round 1

Round 2

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Tags: Solo ( 93 )

giorgis 10:29 pm on October 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Solo ( 93 ), Witcher ( 2 )

giorgis 9:10 am on October 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: MERP ( 14 ), Solo ( 93 )

giorgis 6:05 pm on October 2, 2021 Permalink | Reply
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giorgis 5:44 pm on September 30, 2021 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Solo ( 93 ), Warhammer ( 15 )