Thursday 12 October 2017

Basic Fantasy RPG - Part V



You may have noticed a slight stall in the continuing story of my adventurers first foray into Basic Fantasy RPG. Real life unfortunately intervened, but in true gamer fashion we rescheduled and got going again!

At the end of the last session, the players were battered beaten and bruised. You may remember our thief is minus an eye, and generally the party are feeling sorry for themselves. However they have successfully cleared out the first level of the dungeon and collected some suitable loot.

With some feedback from the players they were finding it difficult in some instances to get to grips with hitting things (although a large number of sub 5 rolls on a d20 were not helping). Now this is where Basic Fantasy comes into its own for me (I recognise other systems will have similar offerings however I'm just covering BFRPG here). The core rule book has various options for helping the players. There are also a load of optional rules available for download from the BRFPG website.

After some reading and providing options to the players we decided upon the following.

Firstly we used an optional rule from the core book to allow the players to exchange gold for XP. We played this as they scoured the dungeon of every last hide gold piece and scrap of saleable rubbish and did a few trips back to town to ensure they had flogged everything not nailed down. 

Once they had all their money ..... 

The Thief disappeared into the shadows ... we aren't sure where he went but when he came back he was a little more adept at opening things that didn't belong to him.

Our Fighter blew his money in every tavern he could picking fights with anyone and anything he could find. By the end of this he was a little bit better at hitting things.

The Mage entered a strange building that was on the edge of town that everyone was sure wasn't there before. When he came back out a few days later he had a spring in his step and more thoughtful composed look on his face.

Our Cleric found a suitable temple and prayed. His God was obviously very happy with him as when he left he seemed to be imbued with a little more of his Gods power.

So that found them all at level 2 ... broke .. but at level 2! Still they had a little cured wolf meat left over and another dungeon level to sort!

We then decided to also roll in some other interesting extras that are available for download.

First we gave the Mage and Cleric cantrips. I decided to not extend this to the other players as I wanted to keep it "special" for the magic users.

Our final extra that we added was weapon specialisation for our Fighter. This is a brilliant extra that allows the fighter to put a point against a specific weapon that they specialise in. At 1 point of specialisation this gave our fighter a +1 to hit with their two handed sword, add to this their +4 strength and +2 attack bonus as a level 2 fighter and they were suddenly on +4 to hit!

The final change for this session was the use of tokens to represent each character. This way when we hit an encounter or some other more treacherous part of the adventure we could lay out not only where the players are but also where the monsters/adversaries are. This allowed them to be more strategic on where everyone stood to maximise the armour and protect the more squishy.

So that was the characters all set and ready to hit the second level of the dungeon! Below is the map, not really a spoiler as they had seen it, although I didn't provide a copy. They entered by going down the stairs bringing them out at the bottom of the "A".




After lighting all their lanterns the group proceeded forwards till they came to the first junction. There they saw what appeared to be a mound of rags on the floor. Being suspicious of the bundle on the floor they decided to play it safe. One of the adventurers poked the pile of rags with the Clerics staff, nothing initially happened and the party debated whether they should just torch the lot to be safe (I love paranoia!).

The pile of rags moved and started to make groaning noises; the party decided it may be a little premature to fire them up just yet!

The bundle of rags said "uh oh please can you help me.....", the Thief passed an intelligence test and recognised the voice as none other than Gilgan. Gilgan first met our adventurers when he healed their Clerics blindness .... but not before he persuaded him to get naked ... you know just because he could really.

Gilgan rolled over and sat up, his face all beaten and bruised. The Cleric took his opportunity to offer to heal him if he got naked ... Gilgan laughed so hard he spat out a tooth.

There was then a heated discussion between the group as to whether they should stab him and leave him here, just leave him here, or still set fire to him. Eventually the Cleric decided he should guide the group along a more spiritual path, and as much as he wants to even the score with Gilgan, he felt that killing him was probably too much.

Gilgan proceeded to tell the adventurers how a group of bandits had come to his temple to seek healing. He had, as is is wont, insisted on them stripping naked. However when he laughed and told them it was just his little joke they apparently didn't see the funny side, beating him mercilessly. Gilgan managed to escape but was pursued by them through the cellars of his temple and through winding caverns. After days of running he finally collapsed here where they found him. Gilgan asked the adventurers if they would be prepared to help him get back to his temple, and clear out any of the bandits if they are still around.

At the knowledge he had made the bandits strip the players had a second heated discussion between the group as to whether they should stab him and leave him here, just leave him here, or still set fire to him. Again the Cleric decided that maybe they really should help him.

Before moving off the Cleric, a Dwarf, tried to discern whether either of the two passageways sloped downwards but was unable to discern any real difference. Gilgan laughed (he does this a lot) and got back gingerly to his feet following the party up the corridor towards the top of the A.

The Thief's keen ears picked out some low voices from the gloom ahead (a brilliant listening check) ...

Voice 1: "what was that...."
Voice 2: "I dunno but be quiet.."
Voice 1: "Me....your the one making all the noise...."
**soft thud**

The voices were drifting down from the ledge just in front of the party, a rickety wooden ladder leaning against the wall. After a quick whispered discussion the Fighter created a distraction by throwing a rock up and over the ledge; this made a loud "thunk" noise as it hit the wall at the back of the ledge. The voices again could be heard exclaiming "what was that.."
At the same time as the Fighter threw the rock the Thief crept quietly up the ladder, making excellent use of his Elf slippers granting him a 90% chance to sneak! Gaining the top of the ledge he saw two humans facing away from him. Stealthily moving behind the first he slid his dagger around their throat, in one smooth motion he sliced the throat clean open; blood pumping through his grasping fingers the man fell to the ground, twitched a couple of times then lay still. The second man span around to face the Thief, however his lightening reflexes allowed him to slash out quickly at the bandit. A red streak blossomed on the mans cheek as he leaped back to avoid the full force of the blow, his stumbling in his haste he fell his head smashing on a rock as he hit the ground. A cursory check was all that was needed to confirm the poor bandit had bashed his own brains out.

The Thief rejoined the party and they continued on down the passageway towards the bottom of the "E". The caves seemed relatively quiet in this section of the dungeon, possibly having been cleared out by the bandits as they had searched for Gilgan (no 1's on my d6 rolls there!). As they reached the junction at the bottom of the E the party discovered some blood red lichen on the cave wall.

The Thief was convinced this was blood lichen and extremely dangerous. Wanting to keep some to try and use it to poison a weapon he borrowed a bottle from the Cleric and scraped some off into it. A successful dex test had none fall on him, and the party decided to ask Gilgan if he knew what it was. Holding up the bottle they asked him if he knew what it was to which he replied "Yes...it's moss" ... they asked what sort of moss .. "Red moss...." (Gilgan laughed a little). Gilgan swiped the bottle off the players and emptied the moss into his palm then rubbed it all over his face. Laughing he says "It really is just moss".

There was then a heated discussion between the group as to whether they should stab him and leave him here, just leave him here, or still set fire to him. Eventually the Cleric decided he should guide the group along a more spiritual path, and as much as he wants to even the score with Gilgan, he felt that killing him was probably too much. (Yes I just copied this from above because .. well that's what happened :) )

The group proceeded up the corridor (the top of the "E"), slowly working their way along the Thief held his hand up for everyone to stop. Straining his ears he could just make out the sound of breathing. Scanning the corridor ahead, the thief identified a section along the right hand wall where the shadows appeared deeper. Readying his bow the Thief let loose with an arrow at the shadow. A sharp crack broke the silence as the arrow shattered on the stone wall. A split second if silence followed before a bandit came running out into the corridor from the hidden natural alcove. Swinging his sword wildly the bandit ran straight for the Thief who felled him in one go.

Continuing to the end of the corridor the party could see a tapestry of a golden chalice with light emanating from it. Ripping the tapestry down the party found themselves face to face with 8 skeletons. Acting quickly the Cleric raised his hands into the air and called a blessing to his God. Three of the Skeletons feeling the power of his God burning from within him turned and started trying to claw through the wall behind them. The Cleric was then unceremoniously pushed aside by Gilgan as he said "You do it like this boy...." and with a flowery wave of one hand the remaining 5 skeletons turn around and start trying desperately to escape.

The party then quickly discussed their next move. The Cleric was all for heading elsewhere, but the others were sniffing some XP and wanted a fight. The Mage reminded everyone he had holy water ... Gilgan offered them a bottle of yellow water he swore blind was "holy" but the party declined. Finally they decided to go for it. The Mage pulled back his hand and put everything he had into the throw....unfortunately he forgot to let go until the last minute and smashed the bottle at his feet. However a good dose of it splashed over the skeletons who were in fact quite near, but now also quite annoyed.

The ensuing battle saw the Cleric absorbing damage from the skeletons who were now hacking and slashing for all they were worth.
The Mage threw a magic missile which struck a skeleton soundly, the magic wrapped and warped around his bones, the crackling blue energy dissipating too quickly and not doing any damage (although it did burn off the tattered remains of clothing on the skeleton).
The Mage threw a second Magic missile, this time the blue magic took hold as it wrapped around the bones, catching and feeding off the bone consuming it in blue fire.
The Cleric smashed one with a massive blow reducing the skull and most of the torso to mere dust.
The battle ebbed and flowed, blows from the skeletons bouncing off armour, and strikes from the adventurers toppling skeletons, and knocking them off balance, causing their fellows strikes to just skim wide of their mark. The party had whittled the skeletons down to half strength when 4 magic missiles curved past them, two hitting skeletons, the blue magic writhing and dissipating before it could catch hold, the other two striking and gaining power, consuming the skeletons till not even dust remained.
The party finished off the other two skeletons and paused for breath. Gilgan checked them all and healed the Fighter who had taken the most damage in the fight.

The party, who as we have already ascertained as a suspicious lot,  proceeded to discuss what was actually going on with Gilgan. Firstly how can a Cleric use a Mage spell, and secondly if he did 4 Magic missiles then he must also be quite powerful ... so how come the bandits beat him up. Who is Gilgan really ... apart from a really really annoying git.

The party discussed these issues while they explored the other corridors (Gilgan content to follow them humming tunelessly to himself) finding nothing more exciting than a rock and a dead end. Eventually the party discovered stairs leading down at the bottom of the "E".

The party decided this was a good place to make camp while they recover from their wounds and rest up before descending to the next level.

Summary

The changes have helped, although I do think we may consider looking at dual wielding. I think the big things that changed this session are:

Our fighter now he is on level 2 and with his specialism is hitting more, and has more damage to soak up some hits.
Our mage is now taking offensive spells which really helped.
Our cleric is really guiding the group and between solidly soaking up some damage and also dealing some good blows is a solid backbone.
Our thief is being really thiefy and playing to their strengths. With the added skills boosts from level 2 they are making the most of their abilities.
Using the tokens so we know where everyone is in the scene makes a massive difference and helps protect the squishier party members.

Hopefully it won't be so long till the next session. As always I'll write it up and make it available as soon as possible.

2 comments:

  1. Great session, thanks for sharing. :)

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    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully not so long till the next one!
      Thanks
      Mark

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