Simple Magic for Fate Accelerated

Basics

If you have a permission aspect that implies that your character can do magic, you may describe any action that fits into the paradigm of your magic as a magical action. That's mostly a narrative function. Now, this allows you to work magic that affects a single target in your zone for a scene at most. If you want to break those limitations, you need either a specific stunt or ritual magic.


A stunt describes how you break one or more of those limits. Each limit broken with the same stunt costs a refresh. So affecting multiple targets: one refresh, affecting someone in a different zone than your own: one refresh, or a longer duration than a scene: one refresh.


Ritual magic is in essence a challenge with at least three exchanges: creating some sort of focus for the magic, gathering the magical energy (or attaining a heightened state of being for doing the magic, etc), and finally unleashing the spell. At the GM's discretion, the stage for the gathering the energy could be extended to several actions, depending on the magnitude of magic described. Recommendation: limitation broken adds one exchange to the challenge

Summoning

Summoning an entity grants a nameless NPC with a either two things they are good at chosen by the caster, and one thing they are bad at chosen by the GM, or it grants an Fair (+2) nameless NPC with one approach at Fair, and two approaches at average. In any event,, the nameless NPC has one stress box.

Spells that augment a character in a specific way are create advantage actions, attacks & defenses are straightforward, as is overcoming an obstacle.


To me, most of this is implied by the Fate Accelerated Edition.


Thoughts? Ideas?

RPGaDay 2017: Final Roundup of Days 21 through 31.

Day 21: Which RPG does the most with the least words?

The Black Hack. This RPG wonderfully recreates a original D&D feeling without wasting any words. It even inspired me to write my own wordier version with some additional rules called The Kraut Hack.

Day 22: Which RPGs are the easiest for you to run?

That's either a sandbox setup completely before play starts or a game that helps me to create everything on the fly. Recently, I had the best results for a sandbox with Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem. Even though setting up a sandbox is a lot of work, The best pick-up game is Masters of Umdaar a Fate World of Adventure for Fate Accelerated Edition.

Day 23: Which RPG has the most jaw-dropping layout?

Jaw-dropping can either mean visually gorgeous or easy to navigate. I have not seen an RPG that does both equally well. Fate Core is easy to navigate. The most visually stunning in my opinion is War of Ashes: The Fate of Agaptus.

Day 24: Share a PWYW publisher who should be charging more?

I think Evil Hat could probably charge more for their Worlds of Adventures. Note: This is a completely uninformed customers opinion.

Day 25: What is the best way to thank your GM?

Saying thank you for GMing, being an engaged player, and maybe writing a game session report (either in or out of character).

Day 26: Which RPG provides the most useful resources?

Not sure, if this supposed to mean contentwise in the rulebook or as resources on their webpage? I like random tables that help spark your imaginaton. So in a rulebook, I'd say Traveller, because the tables in almost any edition of the game help you build and run a solid game. As resources on a webpage, nothing beats the auto-calculating character sheet for the German edition of The Dark Eye, as well as their rules wikipage. Though I don't play the Dark Eye, the resources offered for the game online and offline (cards, fate chips etc) are gorgeous. They make me want to GM, even though I have zero players for the game.

Day 27: What are your essential tools for good gaming?

Dice, tokens for fortune/luck/fate points, paper, people and nowadays a webcam and Google Hangouts, since most of my gaming takes place online.

Day 28: What film/series is the biggest source of quotes in your group?

Actually it's two movies: The Gamers and The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. Especially the last one. Yes, it's frightingly self-referential.

Day 29: What has been the best-run RPG Kickstarter you have backed?

Everything Greg Stolze did for Reign. Clear funding goal, only a PDF only level, and delivery the day after the money was collected. Also, the promise to keep the kickstarted stuff around for free for anybody else.  This was way back before kickstarting RPGs became a thing. The Reign Kickstarters are the ones you should aspire to: get the money, do PDF only, no stretchgoals, and give away the PDFs for free to everybody else afterwards. Also, next day delivery!

Day 30: What is an RPG genre-mashup you would most like to see?

In my opinion, most of the RPGs out there need more gay. I mean that seriously. Representation is a great mashup for any genre.

Day 31: What do you anticipate most for gaming in 2018?

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Sadly, I am not able to let vampires entirely go.

Finis

RPGaDAy 2017: The collected answers to Days 14 through 19

This is a repost of my answers on Google+.

Day 14: Which RPG do you prefer for open-ended campaign play?

That one is pretty easy. In the past 13 years my go-to-game for open-ended play has always been some sort of Vampire edition. Mostly Vampire: The Requiem or Vampire: The Dark Ages. But my tastes are changing again. Before 2004 I regularly gm'ed Dungeons & Dragons. Nowadays, Fate Accelerated Edition is turning into my go-to-game, as I am slowly moving away from dark gamers like Vampire.

Day 15: Which RPG do you enjoy adapting the most?

Easy one. Fate Accelerated Edition, closely followed by Fate Core. As a generic game, it usually needs some adaption to a specific setting in the way the aspect template is handled, some example stunts and maybe additional small rules additions to the robust core system.

Day 16: Which RPG do you enjoy using as it is?

Basically all that are not Fate Core, Fate Accelerated Edition or OSR. I like using games as they are written, and am very careful about introducing house-rules. One RPG stands out though. I had hacked Vampire: The Requiem 2.0 pretty heavily without first playing the rules as written. When I finally did, it turned out to be the most enjoyable Requiem experience I ever had. So, I do enjoy running VtR2 as it is.

Day 17: Which RPG have you owned the longest but not played?

At was at first tempted to say Mage: The Ascension . But I did play that and all attempts to do so crashed and burned. Besides, I didn't continuously own the first edition.

But the real candidates are my collector's items that I never bought for playing, but wanted to own anyway. So I am thinking back 1990s: By accident I found the original Space: 1889 books and the FASA Doctor Who game. But then I remembered my real catch from somewhere back in the 1980s. Either in the UK or back here in Germany: Red Box D&D Basic in a book edition. I think it was published by a UK company. And I've never ever played this, because I bought it as a curiosity. I've played plenty of other D&D edition, though: D&D Rules Cyclopedia, AD&D 2nd Edition (second game I ever played), D&D 3.0, some D&D 3.5, even one game of D&D 4th edition, and lots of D&D 5e. But never red box D&D Basic.

Day 18: Which RPG have you played the most in your life?

Disregarding different editions like Advanced, 2nd edition, revised, a pesky .5 or anniversary editions or different lines like World vs. Chronicles, the two games, I've played most in my life are Vampire and Dungeons & Dragons. Those are two games I've stayed with through numerous edition changes, change of publishers and shift of rules. I've been playing D&D since New Year's Day 1990, and Vampire since Fall 1996. I've had phases in my life where I didn't touch D&D and phases where I didn't touch Vampire. But both are my longtime companions and the lense through which I view gaming.

Day 19: Which RPG features the best writing?

For me that's Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition aka Blood & Smoke: The Strix Chronicles. The writing was crisp, inspiring and to the point. Transporting a lot of setting information in a less pages than 1st Edition. Also, reading was entertaining, informative and awakened a sense of wonder. I think it was written a lot better than 1st edition which felt like a chore reading through.

RPGaDay 2017: Days 7 through 13

I've missed a couple of days (okay, I missed a lot of days), so here is a quick update on the questions from the last days:

Day 7: What was your most impactful RPG session?
The most recent one for Dresden Files Accelerated showed us that we hadn't really defined the stakes of a conflict, leading to some disagreements about conceding. I learned a lot about Fate that day.

Day 8: What is a good RPG to play for sessions of 2hrs or less?
That's less of a question the system than the prepared scenario. For demo purposes or when the time is tight, almost any RPG can be played in 2hrs or less.

Day 9: What is a good RPG to play for about 10 sessions?
Anything Powered by the Apocalypse. This engine really shines when run for a short story arc.

Day 10: Where do you go for RPG reviews?
Either a review turns up in my G+ streams or I look for them at DriveThru.

Day 11: Which 'dead' game would like to see reborn?
In the age of print-on-demand it's often possible to still get print copies of most now-defunct gamelines. A gameline is defunct, when nothing new is published for it anymore on a regular basis. That said, I would have liked to see more of Deliria, but with a better game system (Fate Core or Accelerated for example). Especially the mythical supplement "Goblin Markets".

Day 12: Which RPG has the most inspiring interior art?
If inspiring means that the art inspires adventure ideas or ideas about the world, then I am going to say Everway. The artwork of that game inspired you to think about it by asking questions.

Day 13: Describe a game experience that changed how you play.
Playing Burning Wheel in the elf game. I realized just how flexible narration and dice rolling can interact, and especially how each roll matters and drives the story in often unexpected directions.

RPG a Day 2017: Day 6 - You can game each day for a week.

Once a year, in August, I go to the coolest RPG convention on this planet. No, not talking about Gen Con. That's the largest. I am talking coolest: Sternenhimmel (in English something like starry sky). It's six days of family friendly gaming in a small town called Nördlingen. That's six days of gaming that I love. So pretty close to a week. This is what I am going to be gaming this year, in no particular order: Idee!, Pendragon, Vampire: The Dark Ages, Masters of Umdaar, Dresden Files Accelerated, Star Trek Adventures, Urban Shadows. Saddly, no Reign this year.

RPG a Day 2017: Day 5 - Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game?

Thinking about this for a bit. All The One Ring RPG covers perfectly capture the atmosphere of Middle-Earth. But with all the visuals about Middle-Earth available that's kind of easy. But the cpver that really did it for me was the one on the Dark Sun Boxed Set (the original one from 1991).

You have a hulking figure in front of a stark landscape overshadowed by a dark sun, perfectly catching the spirit of the resource-scarce world of Athas, a dying desert wasteland ravaged by magic. A perfect metaphor for the 1990ies environmental concerns.

There, I managed to sneak in Dark Sun again, my favorite TSR AD&D 2nd Edition setting.

RPGaDay 2017: Day 4 - Which RPG have you played the most since August 2016?

This is an easy one. Last year, I was completely fascinated by Modiphius' Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of and went all in on the kickstarter. So, starting with the release of the first chapters of the corebook, I've gm'ed the new Conan game. I am at 36 gaming sessions (some as players, some one-shots, and an ongoing, soon to be concluded campaign). The campaign consists of a total of 16 sessions. The last one scheduled, but has not happened yet. The campaign was a real-life gaming group that has more or less disbanded due to time constraints and diverging interests.

RPG a Day 2017: Day 3 - How do you find out about new RPGs?

Usually I find out about new RPGs by reading my Stream on Google+ or by visiting the Google+ community Rollenspieler (deutschsprachig). Also, Jennifer Fuss' Crowdfunding Collection contains interesting new games. Additionally, I am subscribed to the newsletters of Modiphius, Onyx Path, and Monte Cook Games.

RPG a Day 2017: Day 2 - What is an RPG you would like to see published?

There are lots of interesting properties out there that I would love to game in. Stranger Things? Can be done with Tales from the Loop. Star Trek? Has just been done with Star Trek Adventures. Doctor Who? Also available as RPG. Killjoys? As much as I would like to see that, it's easily done with Traveller (any edition) or Coriolis. Though I would love to have a professional game design for Killjoys.

But what I would really like to see would be a non-White Wolf / non-Onyx Path derived vampire game. Maybe Vampire Diaries / Originals or even Vampire Chronicles-based.

RPG a Day 2017: Day 1 - What published RPG do you whish you were playing right now?

It's that time of the year again. August. Time for the RPG a Day. Time to dust of my blog and get posting again. It's a nice exercise for daily posting.

I currently have no regular real-life gaming group, instead playing all my games online via Google Hangout. I am running a weekly Star Trek Adventures game, a weekly Dresden Files Accelerated game, and a bi-weekly Cypher System game, as well as playing a bi-weekly Venture City game. So I am well covered with my currently favorite game systems and settings, making the question what I would like to play right now difficult.

But after some thinking, right now I would love to play a game of Malmsturm. It's also a Fate Core game like Venture City, but it's a German sword & sorcery setting with huge world, larger than life heroes, and equally horrific or diabolic adversaries. So, yes, I am firmly settled with Fate Core as my go to game. Now, if I would manage to get a real-life gaming group with Fate Core going.

Doctor Who Role-Playing Game: Some Thoughts

I finally started running a small campaign using the Doctor Who Role-Playing Game (formerly known as: Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space). This is kind of dream come true for me as I am a really big fan of the Doctor ever since watching him back in the States at the end of the 1980ies. My favorite Doctors are #7 and #11.

I am running a five-part campaign called The Companions where the Doctor always disappears at the beginning of the adventure - simply because I didn't want to bother with playing him as an NPC and not knowing, if one of the players would be up to the task of taking him over.

My concerns initially were if I would manage to recreate the frantic atmosphere of the series. Turns out: my openings feel more like the slow openings of the old series, but then pick up pace. So, I am actually start to enjoy running the game.

My observations so far

The rules rest at a happy medium between simulationist and narrative style. Story points bridge the gap between a more simulationist approach and a narrative approach. Thus, I can see both types of players being comfortable with the game.

The game play shows that the rules don't get in the way of running the game. It's actually quite easy to remember the ladder of No and, No, No but, Yes but, Yes, and Yes and results and when you get them. Setting difficulties is also pretty easy for an experienced GM. The rules enhance the game without being cumbersome, and the graduated successes help drive the story.

The character creation was not really tested yet, because I used the PreGens. Only one player built his own character. I think, here it helps to have access to the rulebook to look over all the options. The system is geared to create the companions and timelords we see in the series.

The rules for building gadgets are really simple, but again it helps if the player has access to the rulebook.

In a way I like the boxed sets which I also own more. They had a players' and a GM book where the GM repeated the player info in condensed form, thus enabling the GM to hand over the players' book to the players during the session. Also, it contained tokens for Story Points, Gadget Cards and Character Sheets for the Companions. Here, the Tenth Doctor box wins the day, because the effects of good and bad traits are listed on the sheet.

The Vortex System is obviously geared towards playing the Doctor and his Companions, and all the aliens and creatures are stated for the Vortex System. The books (not only the rulebook) are illustrated with pictures taken from the series which really is a no-brainer and creates beautiful books based on the franchise.

My big but

After running three sessions of the game, and having run FAE recently, I feel the Vortex System is complicated as opposed to FAE. A lot of the mechanical effects that Vortex codifies could be more easily and elegantly be simulated by FAE or Fate Core. Building a gadget? As easy as creating an advantage (and not limited to a list of traits). Being a Timelord? No need for a dozen traits, but simply an aspect that can be invoked or compelled. Special good traits? Not all of them need to be mechanical, some could simply be aspects. Those with mechanical oomph could be stunts.

So while I will finish my current "season" of The Companions with the Vortex System, for further seasons I will strongly consider moving to FAE or Fate Core.

Fate of the Requiem: Setting & Character Creation

In this post I want to outline how I'd go about creating a Vampire: The Requiem game with Fate Accelerated Edition. I've sort of given up on a generic Fate game for vampires, instead focusing on making Vampire: The Masquerade and/or Vampire: The Requiem work with FAE. I just love the setting of Vampire: The Requiem, but I don't really like the second edition of the game. The second edition for the first time tries to be a story game, but in my opinion falls short due to some design decisions (or lack of deeper playtesting). The setting in VtR 2.0 on the other hand is ramped up to eleven thanks to kick-ass writing.

Bruce Baugh has done some excellent work for a VtM or VtR hack of the game. Things I am going to build on:

• General Thoughts on Vampire
• Masquerade Clans as Stunts

The Basics

The game uses the six standard approaches of FAE. The game itself will have three campaign aspects that can be invoked (including hostile invokes) and/or compelled:

• A Hunger Like Fire (representing the thirst for blood)
• The Suns Forgotten Kiss (representing the vulnerability of vampires to sunlight)
• A Beast I Am, Lest a Beast I Become (representing the beast and it's effects)

Setting Creation Part One

The GM picks some of the major players (prince, primogen, head of covenants). They also chose a city to set the game in (simply because the GM should be familiar with the city in question). Then the group sits down together and creates a current and an impending issue according to Fate Core. After that the group fleshes out parts of the city along the lines of Dresden Files city creation: select a location (fictional or real) or a city district, put an aspect to it and create a face for that location or district. It's recommended to let each player (including the GM) one location or district.

Character Creation

The characters are built according to FAE. They have up to five aspects, distribute values to the six approaches (1x good, 2x fair, 2x average, 1x mediocre), and select up to three stunts.

Aspects

The five aspects cover the following:

• High Concept aspect (who are you? what is your character about?)
• Trouble aspect (what is an issue the character has?)
• Masquerade aspect (how does the character interact with mortal society?)
• Requiem aspect (what is the character's place in the Danse Macabre?)
• Clan aspect (fixed and based on the chosen clan of the character)

The character's clan and covenant must either be part of the high concept, the trouble and/or the requiem aspect. As part of the high concept or requiem aspects clan and covenant indicate a character in good standing with those two entities. As part of the trouble aspect, they indicate issues with clan and/or covenant. The player can decide where to put clan and covenant, they don't have to be part of the same aspect.

The clan aspect is derived from the clan of the character:

• Daeva: The ones to die for.
• Gangrel: The ones you can't kill.
• Mekhet: The ones you don't see.
• Nosferatu: The ones you fear.
• Ventrue: The ones you can't deny.

Stunts

The characters get four stunts for free. Three are Discipline stunts designed around the theme of a discipline (either 1st or 2nd edition). Two of those must be from the clan disciplines of the chosen clan. The third can be from any discipline or a covenant specific one for the covenant of the character.

The fourth stunt is based on the chosen clan of the character (which takes heavy inspiration from the clan-specific stunts created by Bruce Baugh).

Examples for stunts and the clan-specific stunts will be listed in a later post.

Setting Creation Part Two

After creating the characters, you continue to flesh out the setting. This time using the section "Climbing the Ladder" from Vampire: The Requiem 2.0 (simply follow the instructions).

Additional Rules

Using Vitae

Vampires are able to use the power of their blood. Thus, a player can decide to take a blood thirst related consequence and gain a bonus to their next dice roll (+2 for taking a mild consequence, +4 for a moderate consequence, and +6 for a severe consequence). If a character is taken out by blood thirst related consequences or stress, they go in a frenzy. The GM is free to decide the results of that frenzy.

The Hunt

In order to get rid of a blood thirst related consequence, the vampire must hunt for blood. This is usually a three part challenge:

• Carefully or cleverly identifying the prey (usually at Fair difficulty)
• Flashily or sneakily approaching the prey (usually at Fair difficulty)
• Forcefully or quickly taking their blood (difficulty depends on type of consequence to be healed: mild consequence - fair, moderate consequence - great, severe consequence - fantastic)

Failing to identify or approach the prey the result in wasted time, as the character has to start the hunt again in another scene. Failing to take the blood usually results in some sort of discovery that forces the character to flee. They have not gained any blood, but also haven't been discovered. Minor costs for a tie include being observed, discovered or disturbed. Major costs to turn a failure into a success could be anything from a Masquerade breach to being found by hunters (see also page 96 in VtR 2.0 for further ideas on major and minor costs for a hunting challenge).

The hunt can also be used to heal physical consequences.

The next post in the short series will cover some examples for discipline stunts.

FAE and Fate Core: Random Thoughts

I am getting back into Fate Core and FAE in the past couple of weeks. I am still impressed by the simple elegance of the game that starts with the dice, continues with the rules (four actions, four outcomes) and ends with the character sheet. The more I look at the game, the more I realize that you don't need many moving parts for a character: aspects, skills and stunts. Even though the Fate System Toolkit offers a lot of nifty parts, they are not really required to run a game of Fate. FAE ups that elegance by a notch. Instead of numerous skills you have instead six approaches that define how you do stuff and not what you do. This reminds me of the PtbA games. There, you usually have a handfull of attributes that also describe how you approach a situation and not what you do. What you do emerges from the fiction. I think that's the important lesson from PtbA: what you describe in the fiction is going to happen in the rules.

Transferring that back to Fate, you suddenly realize that you don't have to worry about Extras (chapter 11 in Fate Core). Like FAE says, if one of your aspects says that you can do magic, then your character can do magic. That aspect will color the player's narration. If her wizard opens a door, she'll do so forcefully with a magic spell bashing the door in, not by throwing her body weight against the door like the barbarian or using lockpicks like a thief. The end result is the same: a broken door, but how your character breaks it in the fiction, informs about who you are playing. If you apply this principle from FAE to Fate Core, you suddenly see how you arrive at Collegia Arcana Magic (page 275, Fate Core). An aspect permits you to use the Lore skill for magical overcome, create advantage, attack, and defend actions. If you want to have something extra, you can always take a stunt that improves a specific action when you do magic.

Once I realized that stunts can literally allow you to do anything within the boundaries of the fictional laws of your gameworld, and that they are triggered by the narration, I suddenly had a much easier time creating them. This was a learning curve fueled by playing PtbA games (in particular Monster of the Week) a lot in February. Now, stunts come a lot easier. I just think about awesome actions I imagine the character to take in the fiction, and which one of the four actions and which skill/approach would best cover the intended course of action.

One of the comments about the Fate, Blood & Seven Sins I received was the idea of not using hunger stress to represent the need for blood of a vampire, but instead to simply use compels on aspects (the particular comment was talking about game aspects), though I can see this working with character aspects as well (either concept or consequence).

That all feeds back into the utter beauty and simplicity of the Fate system. Narratively important facts can always be represented by aspects. Character aspects inform how an action is accomplished by a character, and even what the character can do. When the narration triggers a formal game action, dice hit the table, and skills/approaches and stunts decide the outcome.

Yes, you can system bloat Fate Core by using stuff from the Fate System Tookit, designing Extras like crazy, and layering game mechanics on top. But the important thing is realizing you don't have to do that to arrive at a satisfying genre emulation.

Which gets me back to Fate Core and FAE. As much as I like the fullblown rules of Fate Core, I always realize that I do not necessarily care for the Fate Core skill set. I find FAE approaches much more compelling, because they get you to think about how your character acts, his personality and way of doing things. So, while I like using Fate Core rules, I prefer approaches to skills. Therefore, I guess I am going to start using a FAE character sheet with Fate Core rules (or I could even use a Fate Core sheet with FAE style approaches: simply insert the approaches into the pyramid, and get rid of one stress track). Of course that means slightly different rules for recovery and advancement and creating the opposition, but those are exactly the rules changes I want in my games.

Okay, that's it for today. My rambling thoughts have gone on long enough.

Fate, Blood & Seven Sins: Conditions

I feel that I need to address stress and consequences first, before going into other parts of the system. How you get stress and consequences informs a lot of design decisions around conflicts, and probably also stunts (i.e. dark gifts & powers) and how to scale humans in regard to vampires.

Instead of stress and consequences, I am going to use a set of defined conditions. Partly because I want to make the game easier to handle (no need to explain how stress boxes work, no need to think about consequences), partly because conditions are going to implicate truths about the setting (both by their description and by how you are removing them).

The Conditions

There will be six conditions in the game, allowing for 14 shifts of stress-soaking as recommended by the Fate System Toolkit, page 19. The conditions will follow all of the rules outlined there. You need to take a specific action (namely, drinking blood) to get rid of the two-shift consequences, and you need to initiate a specific recovery action and roll at a Great (+4) difficulty to begin recovering the four-shift condition.

The conditions are:

• Irritated (1-shift condition)
• Hungry (1-shift condition)
• Angry (2-shift condition)
• Famished (2-shift condition)
• Raging (4-shift condition)
• Ravenous (4-shift condition)

So you are progressing from irritated to angry to raging, and from hungry to famished to ravenous. This implicitly models vampires as very emotional creatures and also dependent on blood. Remember that conditions can be invoked and compelled just like other aspects, and that the first invoke is free after gaining the condition.

NPCs and conditions: It is recommended to treat nameless NPC as an obstacle with a difficulty of Average (+1), Fair (+2) or Good (+3) and not even worry about anymore details (see Fate Core, page 217). Supporting NPC should have a skill column (maybe up to two steps better than the PC), and if they are vampires they get either the irritated, angry, raging or the hungry, famished, ravenous condition track, but not both (decide what you would like to highlight about the supporting NPC: his anger or her hunger). A human supporting NPC will take conditions along the lines of bruised (1-shift condition), injured (2-shift condition) and broken (4-shift condition). Main NPC should get a complete character sheet (according to Fate Core, page 220). If they are vampires, they get both condition tracks. If they are humans, they still get only the bruised, injured, broken track to reflect that they are more fragile than vampires.

How to Gain Conditions

You gain conditions mostly as a result of conflicts,when you push your character to his or her limits. Of course, the GM is still at liberty to assign conditions as a consequence of events in the fiction (Fate System Toolkit, page 18).

When you concede a conflict, you gain one Fate point plus one Fate point for each condition suffered during the conflict, as normal.

Getting Rid of Conditions

The 1-shift conditions (irritated, hungry, bruised) vanish after you had some time to cool down. Usually it takes a scene to recover them.

The 2-shift conditions (angry, famished, injured) need a set of specific actions. A vampire's body and mind are pretty capable of healing themselves, if you have enough blood to recover. Thus, the angry and famished conditions go away, when you have time to drink blood. This can be either freshly acquired at the carotid artery, from animals or a blood bag. How to get blood will be explored later,

The injured condition can be recovered, when you get your injury attended either by first aid or at a hospital. No rolls necessary, just an in-game justification for getting well. It will still require some time to get the treatment, though.

The 4-shift conditions (raging, ravenous, broken) require more effort in order to get rid of them. A broken human probably needs treatment at a local hospital and a Great (+4) roll of someone skilled in medicine. That could either be some nameless Good (+3) doctor or a named NPC or PC with medical knowledge (probably an appropriate aspect and a roll with Greed to represent your knowledge).

To start healing the raging and ravenous conditions, a vampire has to reassert himself as an apex predator who bows to nobody. Starting the recovery process requires exsanguinating a human (an animal will not suffice), and overcoming a Great (+4) obstacle with Gluttony:

• Failure: either you aren't satisfied by one single death and need to continue, or you can start the recovery and erase the first box at a serious cost (typically, someone catches you in the act).
• A tie: you can start the recovery and erase the first box, but the body will probably turn up sometime later, leading to unpleasant news and maybe an investigation into the death. Create an appropriate aspect for the game.
• Success: you start the recovery and erase the first box.
• Success with style: you start the recovery by erasing the first box and can also immediately recover another condition (either a 1-shift or 2-shift condition is removed immediately, or you also start or complete the recovery process of the other 4-shift condition).

The second box of the 4-shift condition is removed at the end of the next game session in which the character participates.

Disclaimer: Remember that Fate is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible, impossible, glorious things. It is not meant to incite you to any real-world action! Vampires are fictional.

Fate, Bloood & Seven Sins: Some More Thoughts

After reading some feedback last week and thinking about the hack (game) myself, I am going to take stock again. Where am I at? What do I want to accomplish? What parts need to be addressed by the hack.

First off, I've decided to drop FAE Hack from the tags of Fate, Blood & Seven Sins articles. Even if the simplicity of the FAE approaches was the first inspiration for the Seven Sins, I want to tap into the wider ideas of Fate as presented in Fate Core and the Fate System Toolkit. I'd also like to push the boundaries of a Powered by Fate game in terms of adherence to the traditional character components (aspects, skills, stunts, stress, and consequences). So I am going back to Fate Core as the starting point and will see what the Fate System Toolkit can offer for my hack.

My current plan is to describe player characters with:

• Aspects: Named to convey specific information about the character, but not tied to a phase model of describing previous adventures.
• Skills: Obviously a condensed list of seven skills that describe how you are approaching a particular situation emotionally. Each skill has a specific application, defined in narrower terms than approaches in FAE.
• Stunts: They will probably be renamed as dark powers or gifts and be from a quite specific list. Currently I am thinking about having five dark powers for each sin, 35 dark gifts in total. This is intended to convey a clear vision about vampires in the game, and also to facilitate faster character creation.
• Stress: Will probably completely replaced by Hunger conditions. I want to address blood as one of the basic facts of vampiric existence, and also replace stress.
• Consequences: Might be dropped in favor of Hunger conditions.

Stuff I need to define (not necessarily in that order):

• The Dark Gifts: This will be an interesting exercise in writing a lot of stunts and defining the way stunts are defined for the game.
• Conflicts: I have some very specific types of conflicts in mind and how to resolve them.
• Conditions: What are they? How do you get them? How do you get rid of them?
• Seven Sins: Each sin needs a more in-depth description than is currently available.
• Character Creation: I will have to tell how everything fits together to create a player character.
• Mythology: What are vampires? Where do they come from? What do they actually do and care about?
• Setting Creation: How the setting creation rules of Fate Core will be applied to the game.
• GM Stuff: To roll or not to roll? How to define humans, NPC vampires and other tricks.

Fate, Blood & Seven Sins: The Seven Sins

The core of Fate, Blood & Sevens Sins are of course the Seven Sins. They describe vampire player characters and what they are capable of doing. They replace the approaches of FAE.

The Seven Sins

Each sin is described from the perspective of someone having a high rating in that particular sin.

• Envy: Wanting, needing, taking. Envy is used to get things, to take stuff away, to get it into your possession. The impulse to grab, to steal, to cheat and to swindle.
• Gluttony: Hunger and thirst. Gluttony is used to drink, to feed, to supply you with blood and thus power. The impulse to gorge yourself, because tomorrow there might be nothing left.
• Greed: Keeping things, defending what is yours. Greed represents your hoarded possessions and your knowledge. You keep them in a tight grip, refusing to let go. Like a spider in a web or a dragon on his hoard, you let nothing escape.
• Lust: Turning someone on, getting them to do what you want, getting them to want you. Lust is used to have your way with people. You are walking desire. They starve for your attention. You are the flame, they are the moths.
• Pride: Turning someone down, refusing them. Pride is your armor. Let others bend knee, let them bow. You are too good for that. You will not bend. You will not do as you are told and fulfill other people's desires at your own cost.
• Sloth: Age cools your blood. With age comes power. Sloth represents that. Your blood  turns cold in your veins. It runs heavy, not easily roused. You are a rock, secure in your own abilities. Let them come, you will prevail.
• Wrath: Violence and the inclination for using violence. Wrath gets you in a fight and sees you emerge victorious. You are uncontrollable, rash, hair-triggered. Always ready to pounce on your opponents and tear their throat out. You don't stop when your opponent is down. You go all the way in your red-hot rage.

I'll post a more detailed description of the Seven Sins later, including the four actions: overcome, create advantage, attack, defend for each.

Fate, Blood & Seven Sins: Taking Stock

It's been a long time since I took a look at Fate, Blood & Seven Sins my planned Fate Hack (dare I say game?) about vampires. Last I did a lengthy write up in German and had one test game. After that game I shelved the project again. My last attempt included options for building mythology, gifts of the blood and most importantly a definition of the seven sins as approaches/skills and how they interact in a pretty specific way. Play testing went reasonably well. Players were complaining that getting blood was too easy mechanical-wise and didn't feel right (basically, it was just a scene played out without any rolls).

By now I had some time to think about what I am trying to achieve and why:

• I want a game that appeals to those of my players who like Fate.
• I want to have a replacement for the current rules set of Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem available because I find VtM deeply flawed system- and setting-wise, and I don't really like the changes to VtR 2.0. On top of that I find both systems cumbersome.
• I want a game about vampires, because they continue to fascinate me, and they are the Urban Fantasy I am most comfortable with.
• I want to use Fate because it is an OGL/Create Commons licensed game engine that easier to hack compared to PtbA. Also Fate is enjoying quite the popularity.

After defining what I want and why, let's take a look at the Vampire games (Masquerade and Requiem) and see what I think their strengths are:

• A rich and deep mythology, especially VtM shines with its Caine myth.
• Turning vampirism in a struggle vs. self through mechanics (namely humanity and frenzy).
• Emphasizing the dependency of a vampire on blood; portraying the vampire as an addict.
• Faction wars (or rather intrigues) that put the actions of a single character into a greater context.

But I still wanted my game to be different. Therefore I introduced things like mythology and city creation, etc. That was an attempt to differentiate Fate, Blood & Sevens Sins as a toolbox for building your own unique vampire game (kind of like Vampire City). But I realize now that I already have a strong vision of things I want in a vampire game and things I don't want to be there. So, instead of a toolbox the next time around it will be mythology of my own devising. Probably there'll be parallels to existing mythology, but mostly it's planned as a grounding for the game to give it a stronger hook.

What also needs to be differentiated is the genre of the game. VtM and VtR both lean heavily in the direction of horror and intrigue. I know that both games often hit the table as "superheroes with fangs" or an intrigue-load that turns people off. Also, Gothic music still shows its influences heavily in the games. So I am not sure yet, if Fate, Blood & Seven Sins should do things differently. Personally, I like the slick and stylish aesthetics of movies like Blade, Underworld and We are the Night, or the creepy horror of Byzantium and Let the Right One In, or the languid atmosphere of Only Lovers Left Alive.

At the moment, the only thing I have nailed down firmly in my opinion are the Seven Sins. They replace the FAE approaches for doing things. Their definition seems to be valid, in so far that they all do very specific things. Expect to see them here soonish.

That's it. This where I stand, and where my ideas are taking me.

WH7 The Fountain of Life

My experiments continue. Only two players of the regular group could make it this weekend. So I've decided to include another adventure into the current UK2 The Sentinel module. The adventure is called Fountain of Life and was originally published in the RPG magazine "Tortured Souls". I am using the German translation that appeared in ZauberZeit #8.

Note: Still using the complete PHB and the D&D Basic for DMs V0.1.

Cast of Characters:

• Grandor, male mountain dwarf cleric (acolyte)
• Orell Underhill, male stout halfling rogue (spy)

After helping Khelben and company to investigate the standing stones Dancing Dew Maidens, Grandor is sent south to Wolfsdale to find out if Mab, Bruenor and Orell need help in dealing with the troubles at Wolfsdale. After a week of uneventful travelling, Grandor arrives at the village. He is pointed to the inn where Mab and Orell are staying. Mab introduces Grandor to Orell and tells him that Bruenor has taken their drow "prisoner" to Lakehaven to a magistrate located there to get her official papers.

Orell and Grandor go around shopping a bit, but the stores don't really have what they require. Then they see a young man, a blacksmith coming into town carrying a dead man in his arms. The blacksmith is called Travultar and the dead young man is Pugnam. He was bitten to death and a javelin was found at his side. Grandor recognizes the javelin as lizardfolk-made. Also, the bite marks point in the same direction.

Papa Kursk, the village elder, suggests that Grandor and Orell could ask a friendly young lizardman called Tsziktezz for aid in tracking down the lizardmen responsible. Tsiktezz lives in a small valley at the edge of the Mountains of Mist (yeah... I was very Tolkien inspired back in my youth when I came up with names). Papa Kursk tells them that Tsziktezz lives at the Fountain of Life. Grandor and Orell decide to accept the mission in return for a modest payment of 25 gold pieces.

Before leaving the village of Wolfsdale, Orell shows Grandor the strange inscription in blood that they found earlier. Grandor is able to translate the draconic writing. It seems to be a rather mysterious plea for aid, warning of a great evil stirring.

As they prepare to finally leave for the half-day journey to the Fountain of Life, Travultar approaches them and tells them about his brother Trackak. He went missing some three weeks ago. He wears a necklace made of crystals similar to the one Travular wears on his dark haired chest. If they can return his brother alive, he promises them 200 gold pieces. If they can return the crystal necklace to him as proof of his brother's death, he'll still award them 100 gold pieces.

After half a day of travelling into the mountains, Grandor and Orell reach the temple of the Fountain of Life. As they enter the seemingly abandoned caves, they disturb a swarm of bats. After chasing them off, they proceed deeper into the caves. They don't find much of value, and turn back as they encounter a stone guardian on a bridge. Then, Grandor decides to cast locate object in order to find the necklace (good thinking on part of the player). That leads them back to a T-junction covered with wooden planks. As the halfling and the dwarf stand together on the planks, they break through into a watery hole. The oil lamp of Ordell is extinguished as it plunges into the water. Suddenly, only Grandor is able to see anything. They are in 5 feet deep water (pity that dwarfs and halflings are less than 5 feet tall...). Grandor feels that the necklace is near. He dives into the water and retrieves it, while being attacked by a poisonous water snake that has taken up residence in a skeleton. Grandor defeats the snake, then emerges from the water again. He dives back down to retrieve his shield and Orell's lamp. Then he guides the halfling to the eastern ladder. They climb up. But just as Orell reaches the top of the ladder, it basically disintegrates below him and dwarf and halfling fall back into the cold water. They finally get out of the pit by climbing the western ladder. Only real problem: the collapsed T-junction blocks them from the exit of the caves...

They approach the stone guardian. It asks them what they want. They reply that they want to see Tsziktezz. The guardian steps aside and lets them pass. Behind the room with the guardian, stairs lead down to another level of the abandoned temple.

On the second level, they enter a dining room. A loud gong sounds. Food appears on the table and two goblins run out of an adjacent room. The party parleys (that's sensible little folk for you). The goblins want some money, then tell them that they don't know anything about Tsziktezz and let them continue exploring the temple in peace.

In the next room Grandor and Orell find Tsziktezz waiting for them on a marble throne on a platform across water. They talk a bit. He isn't really interested in helping them, but allows them to visit the Fountain of Life. The halfling and the dwarf take him up on the offer.

While investigating the alleged healing properties of the fountain (water gushing out of a solidly golden lizard head), first Orell and then Grandor is sucked into an underground river. Both quickly lose their senses and start drowning...

Both of them awaken at the banks of a small brook, where they have been deposited by the river. It is dark and they decide to take a long rest (being both at 1 hp). On the next morning, they try to find the Temple of the Fountain again, but become hopelessly lost in the mountains. They make camp in the mountains and on the next day walk down into the Weathered Heath again, arriving at the mines of Wolfsdale in the evening. After sleeping at the mining outpost, they are pointed back to the village.

Since Orell lost his equipment in the temple, including a valuable healing potion, they decide to go back to reclaim the equipment. Also they want to talk to Tsziktezz again and get him to help the villagers. But before they leave again, Grandor takes the crystal necklace to Travultar. He is dismayed at the death of his brother, but pays them 100 gold pieces as promised. Orell uses the money to buy some gear.  Grandor meanwhile wonders how Travultar's brother ended up dead in the temple. Something else to talk with Tsziktezz about.

On their way back, they meet a monk called Urquant from the Order of the Grey Cowl. He asks them for help. He was visiting the hermitage of a fellow member of his order, but on arriving he found the brother hanged in a tree and was attacked by two gargoyles. He fled into the wilderness and now seeks help to reclaim the treatises on philosophy the hermit was writing. Orell and Grandor promise to help. In return they may keep all the valuables except the books.

The three make camp. The next day, Grandor changes his line-up of spells and together with Orell comes up with a plan for attacking the gargoyles. First they approach the cave, then Grandor fires a guiding bolt at one gargoyle. Orell shoots that one with a bolt from his crossbow. Then the gargoyles are upon them. Grandor summons a spiritual hammer, then swallows the moonstone containing the blessing of Elissar (god of dreams, wolves and hope). The moonstone dissolves into a salty liquid and the two are blessed. Orell valiantly continues to attack the Gargoyles. Grandor uses all the healing power at his disposal to keep the fight going. Then Orell goes down, Urquant recues him and gives him a healing potion. Meanwhile Grandor falls under the attacks of the last gargoyle. But Orell gets up, and swings on the branches of a tree until he can fall from above on the gargoyle. He finishes it off! The day is saved, The group retreats into the woods around the hermitage and takes a good long rest.

On the next day, the trio investigates the devastated hermitage in the cave. Orell and Grandor find the treasure of the gargoyles and Urquant true to his word allows them to keep it. The actual library is guarded by witherweed. But Grandor manages to find a way around the choking plants. Inside the library, Urquant takes the eight books on philosophy written by the dead hermit into his possession, but allows Orell and Grandor to keep a curious blue book that isn't part of the collection.

Grandor studies the book. Apparently, it's the lineage and chronicle of the Arthog family. The head of the family was responsible for guarding a mountain fortress called Adlerweg. When the last guardian returned from Adlerweg, he brought a curious magic item with him that is called The Sentinel in the text, but isn't described at all. Then the family line faltered with Henryk von Arthog who squandered the family fortune and had to abandon the lakeside villa inhabited by his family. Maybe that's the same lakeside villa that Mab, Bruenor, Chasna and Orell heard about some days ago at the half-orc camp.

Anyway, Orell and Grandor split from Urquant who is really grateful for their help and continue on to the Temple of the Fountain. There, they cleverly use a rope and grabbling hook to bridge the T-junction and talk to Tsziktezz again. Still, the young lizardman isn't moved by the plight of the villagers. But as it turns out, he knows about the goblins in the temple who apparently work as guards for him. Also, he set up the stone guardian on the first level. But unable to get to the bottom of the story, Grandor and Orell leave and return to Wolfsdale,

To be continued...

TJ5 Sometimes Even a Dragon Requires Help... Part 1

My experiment in using modules for older D&D versions continues. This time an adventure module from the old German RPG magazine ZauberZeit #2 (Auch ein Drache braucht mal Hilfe). I've DMed this adventure several times already, once with the D&D Rules Cyclopedia and twice with Tunnels & Trolls.

Notes: The full Player's Handbook is used together with monsters from D&D Basic for DMs V0.1.

Cast of Characters:

• Aethelric, male half-elf warlock (criminal/spy)
• Bangrimm, male hill dwarf cleric (acolyte)
• Bjarne, male human fighter (soldier)

On his travels from Rakurstada to Knuivigi, Bangrimm meets two other adventurers: Aethelric and Bjarne. Together they continue their travels to find safety in numbers this close to the Weathered Heath. In the evening, they arrive at Knuivigi and decide to rest at the Dancing Boar Inn. The locals tell them about a sighting of five dragons near the ruins of Castle Raven's Aerie. The next day, the three adventurers leave for the castle.

As they arrive at the castle, they don't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Just a ruined castle standing seemingly abandoned on the Weathered Heath. Cautiously they investigate first the outer, then the inner courtyard. As Bjarne moves into the inner courtyard, he is attacked by a vicious brown bear and heavily wounded. During the battle, Aethelric discovers a sleeping green dragon resting in the adjacent courtyard.

After defeating the black bear, the three try to leave before the green dragon notices them. But they are unsuccessful. Aethelric withdraws into the outer courtyard, but Bangrimm and Bjarne are detained by the green dragon. Reluctantly Aethelric moves back in. The dragon explains that he needs heroes to investigate a crypt. He is too big to fit inside, and the first party he sent in failed to return. The green dragon is looking for the Scepter of Yragael, a warlord who lies buried in the crypt. He points them to three healing potions and then herds them down into the crypt. Besides the entrance to the crypt, a temple to Celos, god of the sun and wisdom, sits in the smaller courtyard and adjacent to it lies a small graveyard.

The adventurers enter the crypt cautiously. The find a big entrance hall, where three doors lead deeper into the crypt. Each door guarded by two skeletons. After a short discussion, Aethelric attacks one skeleton with an eldritch blast. All six skeletons start moving and attacking the adventurers. A pitched battled ensues. The tide only starts to turn when Bjarne goes from a purely defensive stance to the offense.

After the battle the group investigates the door to the left and find an old chest containing two jewels. Aethelric investigates one wall and finds two indentions. They put the jewels there and find a hidden room. There, they are attacked by two giant centipedes. After defeating them, they find some more treasures.

Then they listen at the door to the right and hear squabbling squeaky voices. Entering the room, they see eight kobolds engaged in a heated discussion. Another battle is quickly finished, when Aethelric casts shatter in to the room. They find nothing of value and decide to take a short rest before proceeding into the dungeon.

As they continue their explorations, Aethelric discovers a suit of armor that animates as he tries to retreat. As reward for defeating the animated armor, Bjarne takes the jeweled greatsword that the armor was wielding.

Then they arrive at a staircase that leads down into the lower levels and a big double door that leads into a further room. There they discover a strange dimensional door that deposits them right outside the courtyard again. The green dragon ushers them down into the crypt again, as they tell him that they don't have the scepter yet.

The staircase down to the next level is filled with cobwebs. They proceed through the cobwebs and reach a room with a fountain. The fountain bears a small inscription: "Drink and forget all your sorrows forever." Somehow the party doesn't want to be relieved of all their sorrows and continues onward.

Bangrimm falls into a trap where he's attacked by a giant poisonous snake. Aethelric prevents the trapdoor from closing, and Bjarne rescues Bangrimm from the snake. His dwarven resistance to poison definitely helps him survive the attack. While in the pit, he has spied two scroll cases stuck in a skeleton, but didn't manage to grab them.

The group presses on into a large room where a bronze double door leads onwards. First, the decide to take another short rest. Then they try to pry the door open. It is stuck, and won't move. Aethelric has an idea: they use torches to heat the metal and then cool it rapidly with water from the fountain, thus turning the bronze brittle. After that they successfully force the door open.

Behind the door, a corridor filled with spider webs stretches into the dark. They decide to be more careful this time and burn down the webs. Out of the burning corridor they are attacked by two burning giant spiders.

After defeating the spiders, they decide to take a long rest.

To be continued...

WH6 Trouble in Wolfsdale

The adventure from last Saturday is a bit of an experiment. I am using UK2 The Sentinel as the basis (replacing some of the weirder creatures with currently available counterparts) and not caring much about encounter balancing. So far it works great. Also, I want to see if an "adventure path" survives the changing player roster of my campaign.

Notes: The full Player's Handbook is used together with monsters from the Hoard of the Dragon Queen web supplement and D&D Basic for the DM V0.1.

Cast of Characters:

• Bruenor "Bonebreaker", male mountain dwarf fighter (soldier)
• Chazna Faertala, female drow druid (noble/hermit)
• Mab "Steelfist", female human fighter (soldier)
• Orell Underhill, male stout halfling rogue (spy)

Bruenor, Mab and Orell are still at Miller's Crossing, celebrating and relaxing at the Sleeping Mermaid Inn. At another table we have short cameos by Khelben, Valrian, Sh'razzar and Grandor. Then, Orell spies something unusual outside a window: a hooded shape with burning red eyes. The four heroes dash outside to see a fleeing person that heads toward the sacred grove. Had the person headed into any other direction, they probably would have let them go. But this just looks suspicious. Upon reaching the grove, the person tries to climb a tree but falls down and is finally caught by Mab who handily outdistanced the dwarf and the halfling during the pursuit.

The person turns out to be Chazna, a drow druid from the underdark on the run from mysterious forces who murdered her mentor and stole her circle of standing stones (see a pattern here?). The heroes march her back to the inn in order to interrogate her in a rather friendly manner. Kellion is at first a bit suspicious of the drow, but later relents. Chazna appears to be rather innocent in comparison to the vile legends about her kin. Mab decides to arrest her at the inn and see what they can do about her the next day.

On the next day, a village elder from the south arrives at Miller's Crossing. He is from Wolfsdale and reports about trouble at the village. Some has been murdering farm animals, babies and the elderly. He heard that Captain Khelben of the Dragon Guard is at Miller's Crossing and hopes for help. Khelben and company is already gone though, investigating a stone circle across Lake Crescent. But Mab promises to help. They decide to take Chazna with them, because they can't really leave her in Miller's Crossing all by herself. After all, she might be a spy - something that at least Orell suspects.

After a week of travel across the hills of the Weathered Heath, they reach Wolfsdale. There they start to investigate. Apparently, a script in blood was left at one of the almost-murder sites. But they aren't able to read the script. It's not any language that they know. Not even Chazna can help them.

The next couple of days of investigation are rather frustrating:

• The town cleric of Arianna, goddess of stars and the hunt, thinks it's an ettercap committing the atrocities.
• Apparently, the murderer has grown less murderous. There are survivors.
• Patrolling the immediate area doesn't turn up anything at all.

Finally, Bruenor turns up a lead. While at the inn, he talks with the townsfolk. They tell him that they fought a goblin tribe some years ago. They never found the lair, but suspect that it's located near the lake to the south. Not having any other lead, the group decides to search for the lair. Maybe something can be found there.

After a days travel into the forested hills around the largest lake in the Weathered Heath, the heroes find a hill that is fortified with a stockade. Some people seem to be on patrol on the stockade. After making camp, Chazna decides to go into elven trance, so that she can take watch at night. Orell decides to go swimming. A small creek is running at the back of the hill, and Orell carefully hides in the water. At the backside of the hill, he leaves the water and climbs a steep rock face with many handholds that is about 10 feet high. Above the rock face he reaches the stockade and manages to get a glimpse of the other side. The "people" on the stockade turn out to be spears with helmets stuck on them. With this new discovery he returns to the camp.

After Chazna has awoken from her trance, the group advances on the stockade. Mab discovers that the front gate isn't even barred. They enter the stockade and find the entrance to a network of small caves under the hill. They encounter a couple of traps, then two mountain lions and their master, a half-orc. They kill the lions and capture the half-orc. Mab and Chazna get him to talk. He tells them that:

• He lives here with his human mother and six half-orc brothers.
• They captured an ettercap, but another got away using magic.
• His mother and brothers are looking for the ettercap.
• His mother is a mighty wizardress,
• They chased away a tribe of goblins who used to lair here half a year ago.

Mab tells him that they have seven days to leave the area and that they should take that chance. Then the group searches the living quarters of the bandits.They find a lot of loot that the bandits captured, and also quite some riches amassed by the mother. They only take some of the coins (platinum pieces, eight aquamarines and some of the gold). The rest they leave for the family.

They also find a rough map of the surrounding area. It shows a cross about six miles to the south, indicating a villa and the note: "Villa and ettercap."

Then they move out of the lair and to the back of the hill. There they hide and wait until mother and three of her sons return. Then they sneak out to the front gate, but are discovered shortly before leaving the compound. The half-orcs attack and advance on the party. Chazna is seriously injured and goes unconscious. Mab goes on the offensive. Bruenor carries Chazna outside and then joins Mab. Orell takes up sniping position. The mother is indeed a wizardress or sorceress. She blasts Mab and Bruenor with a color spray, casts mirror image to protect herself, and her sons advance on the party. Mab repeats her threat of seven days. But ultimately, the party has to withdraw. Everyone is already outside of the compound, except Mab. When she tries to leave, suddenly a stone wall appears across the exit. But Mab isn't phased at all. She leaps up onto the stockade and then jumps down on the other side (That was rather spectecular, especially since Bruenor was immediately afterwards: "Why didn't you use the gate?" - Phantsmal force was really brilliant here.) As the heroes flee into the night, some bolts hit them. But that's just some random shots. As they enter the forest, Bruenor turns around at screams: "You have seven days to leave! Then we will be back."

To be continued...