We enter the scene in the middle of a bank robbery. Immediately Jack whacks one robber in the head, teeth and blood go flying. Lee grabs at the one nearest him, getting him into a hold and attempting to break his arm. While a solid hit, the 1 point or so of damage was not a whole lot. Molly has a faux fainting moment, getting off 4 shots on the way to the floor, not quite killing the robber nearest her. And Hambone, now upset that he has a rifle instead of his shotgun, smacks the man Lee is tussling with on the head with his rifle butt as Lee throws him out the window in a mighty throw.
Between the unexpected response, all 4 robbers actually missed in this round. I do roll badly, which does work out well for players when we're in combat.
The next round, Molly hits 3 times and Hambone crushes the man's head in. Jack finishes off his robber, and the sole remaining bandit drops both guns, hands in the air, wide-eyed as his fellow robbers were all pretty much brutally killed in just a few moments in front of his face.
At this point the back door opens up and Roger Rose, the raider with the smoldering gaze, comes out to help. Unfortunately, all is taken care of as the sheriff is walking in the front door. Mr. Rose offers Hambone his card, indicating he may want to hire this group when he gets his info on the Spires up to date. He is an adventurer and wants to explore the mysteries of the Spires. He shows them a Mayan coin he has that is supposedly from there (why yes, I did just get a set of Mayan coins! Would have been nice at the table)
Sheriff Shelton takes the last of the Bad Company Gang under arrest, tells Heimlich to issue another $400 reward for these last 4 bandits, and moves off to put the sole survivor into a cell to be tried. And probably hung. Frank Schmidt, the town farrier, collects his $1500 and pays the group. Heimlich attempts to get them to open an account which they refuse. Spotted Horse has been watching the dinosaurs outside and was not quick enough to get in where the combat took place. Molly takes her share of the money and puts it against the account for Maximillian and the Paleo Express. They are about out of debt now from their initial venture.
Meanwhile, the boys go to the sheriffs to see about getting the gang leader, Six Gun Sal. While there is a $500 dollar reward, they also try to bargain for additional expenses to go and catch the man. Aaron Shelton offers to deputize them for the pay of $1.25 a day, which they scorn. He has to live within the laws of the country and territory, so cannot just pay them more. Only Lee accepts the tin badge, declaring he is now a sheriff. Molly comes in about now, having settled the accounts, and they discuss moving at that very moment to capture the leader.
They do have a map recovered from one of the others they have killed, and between the Indian's tracking and a map, managed to get to the cabin in the woods around 9 or 10. They did manage to avoid a tripwire tied to a bunch of cans.
While most managed to be pretty quiet, poor old Hambone stepped on a twig as they approached the house. From the front, the lamp inside went out, meaning that whoever was in there was now aware of being approached. The front window breaks as a rifle comes out, shooting at Jack and hitting him in the shoulder. Jack and Lee both shoot back, and actually managed to kill him in that very first round, even with all the disadvantage from shooting in the dark. Molly was sneaking around one side, Hambone the other, and when it was quiet, Jack went in the cabin. He crushed the man's throat in the event Six Gun Sal was faking his own death. There was not much around the house, and Hambone found the ripe outhouse around back.
Rather than beheading the man, they do sling him on the single horse in the paddock behind the cabin and start on back. Being late (both in the game, and for me!) we closed down the session there.
A few things: I really do have a hard time running interesting combats. And so far the fights have not been much of a challenge. Part of that for me is the theater of the mind makes it a bit difficult for me as a GM to track everything. Why I used the bank map and screensharing. But that fight also went\ by too fast. I had wanted some of the bad guys to move around the corners and have cover. It, and the final fight, did not last long enough. Going to have to figure a better way to handle combat.
Another aspect that is bothering me is for the 2nd time, I've managed to misunderstand the same player and what he was doing. While words matter, for me a flip is not an attack. So not sure how to really deal with that. The robber did die - the roll to hit was a natural 20 and I did not apply the fist fight max (which for him is a full d8 + whatever d8 he would have rolled) as I heard flip. I ruled the fall damage was a d4, so he did take enough damage to actually kill him anyway. While the net effect was the same, the cinematics of it from the player's perspective were not. Next time he does a "violent" flip, yes, we will apply that d8 damage as it is a flip designed to put the opponent on their head basically. And he also has a nice trait he has yet to be able to use as he has yet to be shot! I'll have to aim for him next time.
Part of this is also because I've never watched any kind of wrestling or fighting (I tend to be more of a pacifist and do not like violence, even in games. Go figure and note that I may be playing with the wrong group!) I just don't handle violence well, so running it is also a bit difficult.
I think they are still having fun, and I plan on running at least another 3-6 sessions as there is plenty to do. And I would like them to be able to level up as well. I'll have a few plans for the next session as they return to town with another dead body. After all, Jack Slade is still in Aurora, though he has few if any of his posse left. He may have to telegraph or hire some local thugs. And technically he and Molly (aka Virginia) are still married, and under the law, wives had far fewer rights in the 1880s. While not quite property, for some men there was no difference and I've a feeling that's the way Jack rolls.
And finally - don't think I did not notice my Traveller post got a lot more reads. I do need to make more Traveller posts. Thinking I could expand on playing Traveller in the Space:1999 universe. Come up with some guidelines, maybe spec out an Eagle (very close to the modular cutter!), stuff like that. Not that it is likely I'll ever get to run that game, but one never knows.
No comments:
Post a Comment