Perhaps this will be a post per room as I run through the map. And it may help to have a bit of the map to see where we are. We did room 1 yesterday, and today we are in room two:
This small antechamber has holes in the walls that looked to hold pegs or torches. There is blood on the floor (4D INT to determine it is only a few hours old, 2D if any woodsman or investigating skills) leading out of the southern open archway. Encounter: Giant Spider hanging on the SW corner; ST: 16 + 1d6 DX: 10 IQ: 10 MA: 12. 1d damage, roll 4/ST or suffer 2d damage from poison. The spider has what appears to be fresh wounds on it.
It is a small room, really only a couple of megahexes honestly. And this is where using hexes for square buildings has issues. I do have a battlemap, so I may switch to that so see if it is simpler to draw out the rooms. I was hoping to be able to leverage the tiles but unless you are really using a map designed for hexes, they don't work too well. But here we have room 2, with our giant spider!
A all-too quick battle ensues: with one character having a bow and high dexterity, she gets to shoot twice in a round, once at the beginning and once at the end. And unless she rolls a 16+ she won't miss! And two of the characters are apparently carrying morningstars which do a fair amount of damage. The first round the spider takes a beating, going from 22 points (I actually rolled a 6 for the ST) to 9 thanks to an arrow and two solid blows with the morningstars. The spider did not hit anyone, and wounded again from a 2nd arrow. The second round made short shrift of our poor giant spider. I was also using a d20 to track the hit points for that spider, and now realize how a spin down die would be a bit easier. Good thing I backed yet another Kickstarter for some giant d20 bloody spin down dice! Cool thing it is actually from a game store in Baltimore, so next visit back to my family I may have to visit as they live in the DC area. And depending on which way I go to the Eastern Shore for my mother, I may pass not too far away from that store. Anyway, spin down dice do not make the opposite sides add up to the same value (a d6 the 1 will always be opposite the 6, 2 and 5, etc. The theory is that the die will be more random if there are subtle weight differences). Spin down goes sequentially so it is easier to rotate. If perfectly balanced I would think it would be just as random but I have read that some DMs will not allow the use of spin downs at the table. But hey - a 2" die.
I also used the large creature cards, so this shot shows our dead giant spider and the card as well. I need to organize that deck of cards to be alphabetical so I can find the things! And make my own template to print my own cards on cardstock.
So room two went by fairly quickly and was an interesting room. Do we want to stick potential treasure in this room as well? I don't think every room will have a treasure, but should have something exciting in it. The 1st room had nothing really, just a minor trap and minor treasure.
Additionally, there is a backstory to the temple/labyrinth they are in. I need to expand the descriptions a bit to start showing that this is a temple for Tona in her healing capacity. For instance, if anyone recognized the frescoes in the 1st room, they may know of Tona as my pantheon is well-known my corner of Cidri. But just how much do they know?
And this brings me to why I like having games start at a low level. Both the players and GM are exploring the world together, and knowledge they gain and create during play helps to flesh out the world I think more than just reading things. The characters are living them. In fact, the first game I played with this group they met an avatar of Mim though I doubt they remember much of that. Unfortunately it has been months since our last game and looks to be months more. But that is also another reason I am playtesting my own game: what do I need to bring with me to play, as we'll be playing probably at their house instead of the really cool warehouse we used to game at. Or we may play here - we'll just have to see how it plays out. And look at me, getting a pun in :)
Summary for room 2: small room, giant spider, no treasure. But another hint with the blood on the floor. And I think the characters will see wounds they did not inflict on the spider and know that they are going the correct way so far.
And - happy November 1!
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