OSE Solo Test - Into the mansion

As a trial run, I had a party of 4 attempting to break into a rich merchant's house to steal back a book of mushrooms (Fungi Of The Far Realms, of which I actually have a copy of so can physically hand them the book when they find it). 

Using the turn tracker really helps as well it turns out. Each turn is 10 minutes, and they can explore an area or whatever in that time frame. Every other turn we check for random monsters, in this case a random guard or attack dogs. What the players did not know is that there is also a war dog along with the outside guard making the rounds inside the walled villa.

Game prep, with the "real" map/poster and the map given to them by their patron. A thief, a cleric, a wizard and a fighter walk into a house...

Deciding to go in the back, our group of book-freeing associates look at the 8-foot wall in front of them. They are in a dark alley behind the villa, wisely deciding to avoid the front door. Also, the library is in the back, so they are hoping the book is in the library to minimize their chances of discovery. I did not make them do any rolls to get over the fence, and in rolling, there was no guard nor the unknown war dog that sniffs around inside the walls. The next turn, the thief actually rolled a 6, having a 15% chance of picking the lock. Level 1 thieves are not, let us say, very good yet. While the rules state a thief cannot retry that lock again until they level up, I'd let them try again per turn but reducing the chance by 5%, meaning they would have a 10% on the next turn, then 5% the final turn and then no chance. Plus checking for wandering guards. Had they not managed to get through the lock, I am not sure what the next approach would have been.

Breaking into the library, both the thief and the cleric noticed the flash trap, so they cautioned the group to avoid it. After a thorough search, the book was not found, nor was any treasure. Books and scrolls were not of any real interest: a Treaty on Trade Negotiations with Amazons did not seem to spark any interest. I'll have to come up with a few choice book titles for this merchant library! And that is where all my random table stuff may come in handy: not at the table, but in preparation for the table!

In the library. I think Colonel Mustard did it,

For turn 5, the thief listens at the door. As the GM I know he missed his roll, but he does not and hears nothing. Fortunately, there actually is nothing there. Deciding that they should rest to avoid combat modifiers, they take a few minutes more in the luxurious library, then start up the stairs for turn 7.

At the top of these stairs, there is a guard. I gave it a 50/50 chance the guard would be asleep. Unfortunately for our crew, she was awake, and she actually heard them creeping up the stairs. She got initiative and the first (and turns out only) battle of the game starts.

Wait, she is awake?!

Our battle goes like this by round (and only lasted 2 rounds):

1. Guard as the initiative so moves around to attack the thief (the easiest target). Our group is blocking the stairs so she cannot escape. She attacks and hits. Her dagger deals 3 points to our poor thief, who only has 4 hit points. Feeling his life blood leaving his body, our thief attacks with his sword. I actually rolled a 20, which is an automatic hit. I also decided to house-rule double damage for a nat 20 roll. Even so, he does not kill the guard who is a level 2 NPC. He does deal 6 points of damage. Her having 8 means she is reeling but still alive. The fighter, apparently taken by surprise by this fast combat, swings. A 1. While I am not doing critical fumbles (though I might if they want to), it means he misses entirely. 
2. Round 2 and the guard manages to hit again, killing off the thief with a stab of her dagger. Never under-estimate a dagger! The fighter rolls a 14, and with his +2, does finally hit the guard, killing her. The rest of the group makes it up the stairs to see the thief and guard, both dead with blood pooling on the stone floor.

Finding nothing of value here, our remaining group goes back down the stairs for turn 8. Into the study they go, only to find a hunting dog resting there! Oddly enough, I decided to roll for a reaction, and the hunting dog takes up with the cleric. The fighter was ready to kill the dog but the cleric intervened. They also find 500sp here in the study while searching. Still no book.

Turn 9 they move up the second staircase, and find two doors to two bedrooms. The first they search has no book, but they find 100sp in the bedside stand. Turn 10, they finally find the book in the small bookcase next to the bed, though nothing else of value in the room.

They creep back down the stairs, and the next two turns make it back out of the villa and over the back wall. No encounters were made for the 1 turn there was that 1/6 chance. 

In the end, they have a total 0f 20 (for the guard) + 50 + 10 XP to split. Having a character die I'll go with splitting the 80XP by 3, or 26XP each. Seeing how it is at least 1500XP for the cleric to level up, I may have to rethink the treasure found.

What did I discover about running this 1st test?

1. As expected, low level characters die easily. Unless you are a well-armored tank, best to avoid combat if possible.
2. I need to work on my trap stuff: still not sure the best way to handle this. I was reading about the "click" method: if they trigger a trap they hear a click. Then they tell me what they do and go from there.
3. rolling for the players (as in the case of listen at the door) should actually be more fun. The players will never know if they hear nothing whether or not that means they really heard nothing or failed the roll. The Fantasy Trip does the same thing, I've just been leery about rolling for the players. Now I am seeing how this can add excitement and the unknown to the game.
4. I really still like playing with minis. It also shows just how small some places are: that guard station really did not have room for everyone, so it matters as to who is first. While not quite the same tactical style as TFT, it is still a tactical game.
5. Resting every hour, as per the time tracking chart, may seem a bit heavy handed. But if you were in a very stressful situation, it will wear you down. Plus, it really showcases just how much time some things really take. I actually liked using that. Not so sure my (eventual) players will handle it, but hopefully we'll find out.
6. The referee's tome does have some good info on the front overleaf for running the game. I will still probably print up the pertinent things. Or wait and see what is on the screen that I am going to get with the OSE Kickstarter - depends on when we actually play. I do have those ref screens from the Planet Mercenary kickstarter (another game I've never played. I think it would be hard to get the "feel" correct even with the mayhem cards).
7. While I played side initiative, I think in an actual game I'd run individual initiatives. I do have those nice initiative trackers to use.
8. Treasure as XP is a simple mechanism. Though I may have to beef up some of the treasure found. However - we always do have to trade risk vs reward. But in having only 26XP for this scenario, it would take quite a few heists to level up. While I don't want them to level up too fast, months of playing at level one will not do. And treasure does give a better and less risky method for experience points. I'll probably add a number of potentially rewarding books in the library. Maybe some gold statuary in the study. That sort of thing. I'd like to see if I could get them out of level 1 after 1 or two sessions. 

I'll have to update the PDF for this game up a bit. Add some descriptions, place more treasure, maybe even have a turn-tracking chart in there as well. The group did not explore a large chunk of the mansion. There actually is a lower level, one that would be more dangerous. I'm going to add some clues that there are more levels, and if the thief had not been killed so soon, would have moved the book to someplace later so that they would explore more of the place. This would give them more chance at treasure and the resulting experience points.