So, we pushed on tonight in Hackmaster. Due to a Florida vacation, Fredikya's player wasn't with us, but we soldiered on. We began in the room of the sarcophagi, where we'd encountered the flying dagger, before. We explored the next, and a skeleton arose, trashing our remaining mage while the rest of the party gathered around and beat it with sticks (except the thief, who kept trying to kill it with a short sword... not so effective, though she hit more often than we did with our staves and maces). The mage was so banged up that we retreated to town, curing him of his wounds and taking a break.
Returning to the sarcophagi, we discovered more skeletons, but with no animation, just treasure. A well-made broadsword (which no one can use, but I intend to use as a rich gift), and a suit of chainmail that fit our fighter. He felt a lot more confident in the better armor. We also found a necklace (which the priest of the Bear refused to test for choking properties on her pet rat), two rings, and a coronet (which we determined was a crown, not a small trumpet). Now well swimming in rich stuff, we pressed on. We fought a massive spider, and my priest of the Traveler got his first initiative under 10! But the fighter took a single point of damage early in the fight, and managed to pull off two strikes in short order, both of which massively penetrated, dropping the brute to the ground. Searching the spider, we found a nice dagger (that I'll probably learn how to use, just because).
We soldiered on, finding the equipment of our mage (who had been kidnapped and tied up sessions ago), then an underground river (that we declined to cross) and a way back to the room whose doors are controlled by a statue. Exploring further, we found our way to a grotto where four pirates argued. A daring plan had Elwyn and Sevlen lead the pirates back to our fighter, shooting slings and arrows (literally) to draw them back. Three of the four were game; the fourth tried to get away, but was TOPped by a shot from Elwyn. I swam out towards the boat... but got caught by the octopus of the grotto. As he pulled me closer, I managed to cast a Safe Haven and wriggle free, swimming back to the pirate's boat.
In the boat was a TOPd pirate and a tied-up girl, so I rowed back to the shore, where we found some of the pirate's booty, including a scad of silver and copper, some gems and jewelry, and a few bits of sundry treasure. We will start the next adventure sans Elwyn and Ted, but with Fredikya back, freeing a fair maiden and planning our return with loot.
(Sorry for the poor story-telling; I am getting this on screen before I collapse. SO TIRED)
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
Love Songs about Dwarves
So, one of the on-going arguments in fantasy gaming is "Do dwarven women have beards?" To which the answer is, of course, "The pretty ones do." I like for dwarven women to have beards because I think it emphasizes that they're an alien species, with a different conception of beauty than is common in human society. Elves are the little waif-fu human fantasies... dwarves are something else entirely, eschewing human notions of beauty for their own.
As the song says... Hairy face makes for Dwarven Beauty.
A few years ago (thinking about it, the first goes back more than a decade, to when I was in school), I did a number of filks based around fantasy gaming, including some songs about dwarven women. Here they are, for the modern reader:
As the song says... Hairy face makes for Dwarven Beauty.
A few years ago (thinking about it, the first goes back more than a decade, to when I was in school), I did a number of filks based around fantasy gaming, including some songs about dwarven women. Here they are, for the modern reader:
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Scary Spider, Levels, Flying Dagger
So, we reconvened on Saturday to play a bit more Hackmaster. When last we left our heroes, there were a group of goblins that we were failing to sneak up on, and we'd just rolled some initiatives (in my case, truly horrible initiatives). I was bit annoyed at my GM, because I figured she'd screwed me on the initative die... but that's before the spider exploded into the room and started trying to eat me. Grimwulf charged forward to distract the spider, taking a slight wound in the process, but we then retreated, leaving the goblins (who came out to attack the spider) to play with our new friend.
At this point, we concede that most of us are out of spells, lowish on HP, and kinda tired of the dark, so we head back to Salt Haven to spend a couple weeks licking our wounds and learning a few things (all except Ted, who didn't quite have the XP). While there, Fredykai acquired a crossbow, and we got a request from the mayor/innkeeper/sheriff to deal with the river pirates once the days warmed up and they started preying again. This is right in line with the Traveler's ethos, so I'm certainly looking forward to it.
Rested and leveled, we returned to the Tower Basement. This time, however, we chose not to tread well-worn paths, and continued into the other parts of the basement. We came to realize that the ruins were far older than the tower had been (bolstering our observation from last session about the age of the astrological charts), and stumbled across a room of sarcophagi. Being cheery tomb robbers (see my article Corpses and Caches to understand the theological underpinnings of "It's ok to loot dead people if no one knows their name"), we levered one of the sarcophagi open, with Grimwulf standing ready to smash the skeleton inside if it objected to our stealing the pretty dagger on its chest. Instead, the dagger objected, chasing us around the room for a moment. We smacked it down, and it got back up in a moment. We bound it in a sheath, it popped out and started chasing us again. Finally, we sealed it back in the sarcophagus, and had to call it a night. Five sarcophagi and many rooms await us, with a need to smash pirates ahead.
EDIT: A bit about the post name. Over on the KenzerCo Forums, Jolly started a "Describe your last session in five words". It's a little bit silly, but it does help to summarize what happened.
At this point, we concede that most of us are out of spells, lowish on HP, and kinda tired of the dark, so we head back to Salt Haven to spend a couple weeks licking our wounds and learning a few things (all except Ted, who didn't quite have the XP). While there, Fredykai acquired a crossbow, and we got a request from the mayor/innkeeper/sheriff to deal with the river pirates once the days warmed up and they started preying again. This is right in line with the Traveler's ethos, so I'm certainly looking forward to it.
Rested and leveled, we returned to the Tower Basement. This time, however, we chose not to tread well-worn paths, and continued into the other parts of the basement. We came to realize that the ruins were far older than the tower had been (bolstering our observation from last session about the age of the astrological charts), and stumbled across a room of sarcophagi. Being cheery tomb robbers (see my article Corpses and Caches to understand the theological underpinnings of "It's ok to loot dead people if no one knows their name"), we levered one of the sarcophagi open, with Grimwulf standing ready to smash the skeleton inside if it objected to our stealing the pretty dagger on its chest. Instead, the dagger objected, chasing us around the room for a moment. We smacked it down, and it got back up in a moment. We bound it in a sheath, it popped out and started chasing us again. Finally, we sealed it back in the sarcophagus, and had to call it a night. Five sarcophagi and many rooms await us, with a need to smash pirates ahead.
EDIT: A bit about the post name. Over on the KenzerCo Forums, Jolly started a "Describe your last session in five words". It's a little bit silly, but it does help to summarize what happened.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Adventures in Trapfinding: Continuing with Hackmaster
Sevlen and (insert elf wizard name here) were travelling west along the river when they reached Salt Haven, a tiny town at the confluence of two rivers. Not quite the last navigable point, but certainly working on it. We arrived just in time for the funeral of a dwarf, and spent some time in the local tavern, the Green Gizzard, learning that the dwarf had been killed in the ruins* of a wizard's tower (actually, the ancient basement beneath the tower). Choosing to confront the evil and maybe find some useful gadgets, Sevlen and (Iewnh) joined with the adventurers to explore the basement complex.
Meanwhile, Ted the wizard woke up in a dark cell, stripped of most of his possessions, with no idea how long he had been there. With ghouls approaching his cell, he used magic to break out, then ran lost for several days through a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
After some rest and healing, the party returned to the complex. They explored the rooms from before, aided by Sevlen's ability to map and keep his sense of direction. They searched the room where Flint died, finding an expensive ornamental dagger, then continued on. Unsatisfied with their cautious speed, (Iewnh) decided we could leave off searching for traps. He promptly fell into a 15' pit trap, pulling Grimwulf down on top of him, injuring himself severely. Sevlen climbed down, and nursed the worst of their wounds, and they were briefly sealed in while Elwyn sought a way to open the trap. Soon after she did, Ted burst into the corridor. A brief and tense standoff was interrupted by the ghouls that had chased Ted, but our Elwyn had learned how to work the pit trap... the ghouls were dropped, roasted, then smashed with Sevlen's sling stones (my argument being "Arrows cost money. I'm throwing rocks."), while the rest of the party fought some largish spiders sneaking up from behind. Examination proved that one of the ghouls was the elf thief's brother, lost 20 years ago. Further examination proved that the spiders were edible, and so we had a bit of a spider-meal at a driftwood campfire near the entrance.
Fortified with cooked spider, we advanced, disturbing some giant rats, who also fell to the pit trap and ranged weapons (with most of the rats being sealed inside the pit trap; with two dead ghouls and their own injured to feed on, they had time.) Our priest of the bear, Ava Cado, opted to befriend one of the remaining rats, and we turned up a few silver in copper in the trash they'd abandoned.
Continuing on, we found astrological calculations that predate the tower on the floor of a long-abandoned bedroom, Ted's old cell (which seemed to be converted storage), and a room with a statue that controlled the doors. Heading out from the statue room, we found a ginormous storage room. Cooking smells wafted across the room, so the thief and Sevlen (who picked up a little stealth) snuck forward. Sevlen had some terrible misfortune, and failed to avoid detection (I rolled 01 more than is statistically probable last night) and the goblins are closing in...
Meanwhile, Ted the wizard woke up in a dark cell, stripped of most of his possessions, with no idea how long he had been there. With ghouls approaching his cell, he used magic to break out, then ran lost for several days through a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
After some rest and healing, the party returned to the complex. They explored the rooms from before, aided by Sevlen's ability to map and keep his sense of direction. They searched the room where Flint died, finding an expensive ornamental dagger, then continued on. Unsatisfied with their cautious speed, (Iewnh) decided we could leave off searching for traps. He promptly fell into a 15' pit trap, pulling Grimwulf down on top of him, injuring himself severely. Sevlen climbed down, and nursed the worst of their wounds, and they were briefly sealed in while Elwyn sought a way to open the trap. Soon after she did, Ted burst into the corridor. A brief and tense standoff was interrupted by the ghouls that had chased Ted, but our Elwyn had learned how to work the pit trap... the ghouls were dropped, roasted, then smashed with Sevlen's sling stones (my argument being "Arrows cost money. I'm throwing rocks."), while the rest of the party fought some largish spiders sneaking up from behind. Examination proved that one of the ghouls was the elf thief's brother, lost 20 years ago. Further examination proved that the spiders were edible, and so we had a bit of a spider-meal at a driftwood campfire near the entrance.
Fortified with cooked spider, we advanced, disturbing some giant rats, who also fell to the pit trap and ranged weapons (with most of the rats being sealed inside the pit trap; with two dead ghouls and their own injured to feed on, they had time.) Our priest of the bear, Ava Cado, opted to befriend one of the remaining rats, and we turned up a few silver in copper in the trash they'd abandoned.
Continuing on, we found astrological calculations that predate the tower on the floor of a long-abandoned bedroom, Ted's old cell (which seemed to be converted storage), and a room with a statue that controlled the doors. Heading out from the statue room, we found a ginormous storage room. Cooking smells wafted across the room, so the thief and Sevlen (who picked up a little stealth) snuck forward. Sevlen had some terrible misfortune, and failed to avoid detection (I rolled 01 more than is statistically probable last night) and the goblins are closing in...
Grimwulf, our fighter, didn't have much to do last night, as most of our combat involved "Let them fall into the pit and kill them from afar." However, with two people exposed and goblins advancing... and pretty much EVERYONE out of spells ((Iewnh) has enough for 1, he said)... Grimwulf is soon going to find himself very valuable.
*RIP Flint Goldheart, of whom Elwyn, our elven thief, said "His smell wasn't that bad and his sense of humor was acceptable." A fitting eulogy.
EDIT: The player of (Iewnh) informs me that the character is named Fredikya.
*RIP Flint Goldheart, of whom Elwyn, our elven thief, said "His smell wasn't that bad and his sense of humor was acceptable." A fitting eulogy.
EDIT: The player of (Iewnh) informs me that the character is named Fredikya.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Hackmaster Alive!
In discussing Hackmaster with some of my face to face friends, the recurrent complaint I hear is about the 3d6, straight down, and other random aspects of character generation. If you cherry-pick your flaws instead of rolling randomly, they're worth only half. You don't get X% in a skill for an expenditure of Y BP, you get to roll a die based on your current skill level for Y BP.... you may get 1 point for your 10 BP spent on Divine Lore, or you may roll your initial d12p*, get a 36, and be an eerily competent miner from your dwarven freebie (seen it happen).
However, one thing I very much like about this is how it helps you flesh out your character. The previous character? He started out as a Dejy (human phenotype, similar in appearance to Asians or Native Americans, with all the variety that entails), perhaps from the large city of Shyta-on-Dobyo. But then I started rolling. And I wound up with a priest of the Traveler whose brothers and sisters were mostly angry with him, and who knew the Eternal Lantern better than his own faith. It completely changed who the character was, and helped to make him real. His background, cribbed from Merle Haggard, wrote itself in the action of random dice rolls indicating where he came from... a man of who was pretty unsuited to the life he was trained for.
This happens all the time with Hackmaster's random tables. Like the 4 Intelligence halfling thief with SCARY Fire-building skills and pocking (Hey, look who likes to play with fire and got burned). Or the almost-shopkeeper** gnome rogue. His only good stats were Looks, Charisma, and a slightly acceptable Intelligence (once I reorganized them)... his Needy flaw told me immediately who he was... someone whose physical weakness and low Wisdom lead them to rely on others far more than they really needy to... but who had the ability to make others do what he wanted.
It's a refrain among Hackmaster players... play the game. Don't obsess about how little fighters get, sit down and play the game. Don't worry because your stats are lower than you're used to... sit down and play the game. Because once you do, you find how these things work to make a great game.
*Hackmaster uses "penetrating" dice, similar to exploding dice. However, on any subsequent roll, you subtract 1 from what shows on the die; on a d12p, if you roll a 12 and then a 1, your total is 12 + (1-1); if you rolled a 10 on the second, your total would be 12 + (10-1). Roll the maximum again, and you keep going, but you still subtract 1 from each die after the first. d20p penetrates to a d6p, however, and d100p penetrates to a d20p.
**While stats are 3d6 in order for best results, there's one bit of leeway... if your stats utterly suck, you can declare the character a shopkeeper and roll again with no penalty. These stats have to be either nothing of 13 or higher, or 2 or more stats of 5 or less.
However, one thing I very much like about this is how it helps you flesh out your character. The previous character? He started out as a Dejy (human phenotype, similar in appearance to Asians or Native Americans, with all the variety that entails), perhaps from the large city of Shyta-on-Dobyo. But then I started rolling. And I wound up with a priest of the Traveler whose brothers and sisters were mostly angry with him, and who knew the Eternal Lantern better than his own faith. It completely changed who the character was, and helped to make him real. His background, cribbed from Merle Haggard, wrote itself in the action of random dice rolls indicating where he came from... a man of who was pretty unsuited to the life he was trained for.
This happens all the time with Hackmaster's random tables. Like the 4 Intelligence halfling thief with SCARY Fire-building skills and pocking (Hey, look who likes to play with fire and got burned). Or the almost-shopkeeper** gnome rogue. His only good stats were Looks, Charisma, and a slightly acceptable Intelligence (once I reorganized them)... his Needy flaw told me immediately who he was... someone whose physical weakness and low Wisdom lead them to rely on others far more than they really needy to... but who had the ability to make others do what he wanted.
It's a refrain among Hackmaster players... play the game. Don't obsess about how little fighters get, sit down and play the game. Don't worry because your stats are lower than you're used to... sit down and play the game. Because once you do, you find how these things work to make a great game.
*Hackmaster uses "penetrating" dice, similar to exploding dice. However, on any subsequent roll, you subtract 1 from what shows on the die; on a d12p, if you roll a 12 and then a 1, your total is 12 + (1-1); if you rolled a 10 on the second, your total would be 12 + (10-1). Roll the maximum again, and you keep going, but you still subtract 1 from each die after the first. d20p penetrates to a d6p, however, and d100p penetrates to a d20p.
**While stats are 3d6 in order for best results, there's one bit of leeway... if your stats utterly suck, you can declare the character a shopkeeper and roll again with no penalty. These stats have to be either nothing of 13 or higher, or 2 or more stats of 5 or less.
Momma Tried: Character Intro for Hackmaster
I turned 21 in Cosdol, beginning my life upon the road. Despite my family's best attempts to raise me into a priest of the Eternal Lantern, the first thing I remember is an urge to see over the next hill. I'm the only one of my family so afflicted; my sister and brothers all turned out properly for the faith, in one way or another.
Perhaps I should begin again.
My family is the Lanterns of Bleslelna in Crandolen; our family has served the Eternal Lantern for generations. Brothers and sisters marry acolytes of the Lord of Luminosity, and it is rare that someone not related to us is not High Lantern of Cosdol. Everyone in the family serves in some way, from questing against undead and walking the Dark Watch to making lanterns and oil. We are raised to it. So, a young man of strong enough arm and quick enough mind was fully expected to be walking the Dark Watch alert for danger, not studying the stars, not slipping off to walk the roads late at night or all through the day. My sister, Avil, and my older brother, Blesden, hated the freedom my parents gave me... I think they saw more clearly where my road was taking me, and that the road was not one fully lit by the Eternal Lantern. Their animosity rubbed off on Nurband, the youngest of the family, though Senden stayed close to me (perhaps because we're P'Baran twins, born less than a year apart). My mother and father gave me everything I needed, but even they had to turn their backs once I swore orders to the Bright Eyes. They placed a pack at the door and locked it against me.
So I set east; east or south were my options, and I had no desire to see Brandobia. East over the Elenons, and into P'Baran lands, never to see Cosdol again. I worked as a muleteer on caravans over the mountains, wintered in P'Bapar where I helped mend leather and raise houses, and now head north from the city, to walk until autumn turns again.
Description: Sevlen is what might be called "pleasantly ugly"; he's not so ugly that you call people over to look at him, but the tanning of his skin combined with pockmarks (from an early brush with cowpox) leaves him somewhat resembling an oil-spotted leather bag. His hair is brown at the start of the travelling season, but, should he lose his comfortable slouch hat (which is pretty likely), it will sun-bleach by the time the leaves turn. When funds allow, he makes it a point to buy new shoes or boots when he settles for the winter, break them in, and give away his old boots to those in need.
Perhaps I should begin again.
My family is the Lanterns of Bleslelna in Crandolen; our family has served the Eternal Lantern for generations. Brothers and sisters marry acolytes of the Lord of Luminosity, and it is rare that someone not related to us is not High Lantern of Cosdol. Everyone in the family serves in some way, from questing against undead and walking the Dark Watch to making lanterns and oil. We are raised to it. So, a young man of strong enough arm and quick enough mind was fully expected to be walking the Dark Watch alert for danger, not studying the stars, not slipping off to walk the roads late at night or all through the day. My sister, Avil, and my older brother, Blesden, hated the freedom my parents gave me... I think they saw more clearly where my road was taking me, and that the road was not one fully lit by the Eternal Lantern. Their animosity rubbed off on Nurband, the youngest of the family, though Senden stayed close to me (perhaps because we're P'Baran twins, born less than a year apart). My mother and father gave me everything I needed, but even they had to turn their backs once I swore orders to the Bright Eyes. They placed a pack at the door and locked it against me.
So I set east; east or south were my options, and I had no desire to see Brandobia. East over the Elenons, and into P'Baran lands, never to see Cosdol again. I worked as a muleteer on caravans over the mountains, wintered in P'Bapar where I helped mend leather and raise houses, and now head north from the city, to walk until autumn turns again.
Description: Sevlen is what might be called "pleasantly ugly"; he's not so ugly that you call people over to look at him, but the tanning of his skin combined with pockmarks (from an early brush with cowpox) leaves him somewhat resembling an oil-spotted leather bag. His hair is brown at the start of the travelling season, but, should he lose his comfortable slouch hat (which is pretty likely), it will sun-bleach by the time the leaves turn. When funds allow, he makes it a point to buy new shoes or boots when he settles for the winter, break them in, and give away his old boots to those in need.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
And Then There Were Three: Hackmaster Campaign
When last we left our heroes, Flint Goldheart and Grimwulf were in a dungeon, with Flint severely injured (a 10pt, an 11pt, and a 5pt wound, with 3 HP to his name). Ava and Elwyn came up from Vew a few hours behind us, and they start looking around Salt Haven for where we went. They reach the graveyard just as Flint and Grimwulf limp out of the dungeon, no sign of the ghouls. Whew. After a bit of banter between Flint and Elwyn, they head back to the inn for a few days of healing, aided by magic and some Honey Brew. Flint made it back to 20 HP, and decided that was good enough to head back down.
We retraced Flint and Grimwulf's steps, and met with the ghouls where we did before. Flint took a couple scratches, but avoided being paralyzed, then waded in and DESTROYED one of the ghouls with a single axe-blow... 46 points with a hand axe, due to a massive critical. (Grimwulf's player asked where this dwarf was last time). The second did manage to TOP me, but our party brought it down. Once Flint recovered (with some critical care from Ava Cado), we headed through one of the doors, encountering a room full of mouldering carpets and the like. Flint realized he had a spear (found on a corpse last time), so he offered to poke it.
"I've got a spear, I'll poke it" is going on his tombstone.
Two giant ticks exploded from under the carpets and attacked him. Flint, with his massive 8 HP, took 31 points... 2 more than his maximum HP. Despite burning all his Luck Points to avoid this, he's dead. He's not pining for the fjords, he's an ex-parrot. The party fought the ticks to smashy, and then retreated, having looted the only thing of value (Flint's corpse).
I started work on a new character; leaning towards one of my favorites: A halfling cleric of the Traveler.
We retraced Flint and Grimwulf's steps, and met with the ghouls where we did before. Flint took a couple scratches, but avoided being paralyzed, then waded in and DESTROYED one of the ghouls with a single axe-blow... 46 points with a hand axe, due to a massive critical. (Grimwulf's player asked where this dwarf was last time). The second did manage to TOP me, but our party brought it down. Once Flint recovered (with some critical care from Ava Cado), we headed through one of the doors, encountering a room full of mouldering carpets and the like. Flint realized he had a spear (found on a corpse last time), so he offered to poke it.
"I've got a spear, I'll poke it" is going on his tombstone.
Two giant ticks exploded from under the carpets and attacked him. Flint, with his massive 8 HP, took 31 points... 2 more than his maximum HP. Despite burning all his Luck Points to avoid this, he's dead. He's not pining for the fjords, he's an ex-parrot. The party fought the ticks to smashy, and then retreated, having looted the only thing of value (Flint's corpse).
I started work on a new character; leaning towards one of my favorites: A halfling cleric of the Traveler.
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