Finally had some time (3-day weekend, whee! Though I actually did work a couple of hours on some documentation as we've under a tight deadline for some things. Hate deadlines but they are a part of the working world). Anyway, finally broke out the Til Death Do Us Part, and it took a bit of time for me set up. Yes, I actually have cards as I did, per usual, get everything I could. But I had to find the right minis for the characters being played. But finally, the group was ready to leave the castle to head to the princess' prince in far-off Prufax. We are all mounted, but as I don't have any mounted minis other than skeletons on skeleton horses, we're just going to pull a Monty Python trick and use some coconuts to sound like horses.
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Off on an adventure! maybe good luck storming the castle!
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Day 1 we head off to Endelyn, a day's ride. We have a peaceful night at the Hungry Basilisk Inn. Next morning we decide to continue down the main road. Alas, this section is badly maintained, and we are waylaid by a masked bandit and 3 henchmen!
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| who would have thought there would be bandits? |
Fortunately, Arashina our ranger, has alertness so we were not surprised. The bandits to the rear and front charged in, exceeding half their movement allowance. Breaking it down by round:
Round 1 Arashina's bow twangs and the arrow finds its mark, Sadly the leathers worn by the masked bandit deflected enough of the barb. The masked man shoots back, his arrow going wide. Taran hits a bandit with his war ax and kills him on the first round! Sir Rostam misses, and the remaining bandits, having rushed to the attack, cannot attack this round. So far, so good!
Round 2 Arashina's next arrow hits and hurts the bandit. The masked archer again misses, as does Taran, blood from his ax at least splattering his opponent. Unfortunately for Taran, the blood is no distraction, and he is hit, taking 5 points of damage. The third remaining bandit hits Sir Rotam, but between armor and shield, the blow never lands.
Round 3 Arashina's third arrow also hits, but the lightly armored archer was lucky and no damage, the arrow glancing off his leather jerkin. Alas for Arashina, this time his arrow strikes true, and she takes a couple points of damage. Taran, stunned from his earlier blow, misses. Fortunately, his opponent also misses, blades clashing in the woods. The third bandit again connects with Sir Rostam, but his shield and armor protect the gallant knight. The gallant knight, well protected, though still seems unable to hit his enemy.
Round 4 Throwing down her bow, Arashina rushes to the masked man, and switches to her saber. Apparently daunted from the rushing ranger, the masked bandit misses, his arrow flying wide of his target. Taran misses again, as does his opponent. Sir Rostam is hit again, but once more his armor absorbs the blows. And he misses yet again.
Round 5 Angered, Arashina hits with double damage! She manages to kill the masked bandit with a mighty blow of her saber, and he falls to the ground, his life bleeding out of him. Taran, leaking his own blood, misses yet again. Unfortunately, his opponent gets in a solid hit, hurting the soldier badly. The bandit attacking our noble knight misses. As does said noble knight. Perhaps the sweat from combat is getting into his eyes, blinding him.
Round 6 Seeing Taran getting mauled, Arashina rushes up behind the bandit. Taran finally hits the bandit and almost kills him (he is down to a single hit point/strength!). Sadly, and in desperation, the bandit swings and hits Taran again, almost killing him as well (Taran is down to 2 strength). The fight between Sir Rostam and the bandit continues as before: both swinging and missing each other.
Round 7 Seeing as the bandit is about dead, Arashina moves back to Sir Rostam's aid. While she hits the bandit, she must be out of breath as she does no damage to the fellow. Taran on the other hand, hits the weaving bandit, killing him after 7 rounds of combat. The bandit facing our knight, getting sliced across the back, faulters and misses Sir Rostam. Who also misses.
Round 8 Arashina finally does enough damage, and the final bandit is killed.
Dreya bandages up Taran and Arashina, but even so, he is at all of 4 strength at the moment and will need time or magic to heal. No one else was hurt in the combat, but he is a right bloody mess.
So, is this more fun than my Traveller solo game? Yes, in some ways. It is a programmed choose-your-adventure style of game with multiple options, so there will be some replay ability. Especially if using different NPCs - currently I am using the default 3. And of course, TFT is perfect for this sort of solo gaming (I've gone through Death Test a few times and managed to survive once so far by taking the most direct route - always go west [or east, been a minute] and run away when you can).
Too early to tell how enjoyable it will ultimately be. Obviously not as much fun as playing with live people, or even 2D people via computers. We'll see how well I'll do.
What could have made this game a bit better area couple of things. I'd have liked a big map of the kingdoms and the paths: while in a dungeon like Death Test it may not matter which way you go too much, for an overland-style game an overland map would have been handy. I may end up making one eventually as there are some broad descriptions at the beginning of the game. All I know is that we need to go east. No idea if that is more northeast or southeast. Those things, at least for the initial game run-through, would have helped me decide a bit on which choices to make.
The other thing would have been nice to have the prices. Though it may - seems to me I did read something about that, so need to look. But I've no idea from the paragraph on the Hungry Basilisk Inn how much it is costing all 5 of us to stay there. And a quick look and voila - found it. $10/night per person, and $5/mount. We've spent $85 of the $1000 already, and based on Taran's health, may have to spend a couple of days at the next inn to at least get him another strength back. Can't remember, but pretty sure he cannot wield his battle ax unless he is at full strength,
Finally, as always, high dexterity characters are best in many ways, though usually they cannot do significant damage against armored foes. And heavily armored foes can take a lot of punishment but have a much harder time actually hitting their opponents (witness Sir Rostam not hitting anything in 7 active rounds of combat. Of course, I also rolled consistently bad for him), I do like an archer - high enough dexterity and they will almost never miss and can shoot twice in a round.
Anyway, I may play again tomorrow. If so, more game notes.
I also got an email about the UFO Technical Manual. Yes - they are making it and yes, I will be pre-ordering as soon as I can. I may see about writing up some ideas for actually playing a UFO/Space:1999 game. I may be able to convince my group to play it.
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