KT1 The Secret of Ravenscar Abbey

This was a spontaneous test round for D&D 5e with some of my regular gaming buddies.

Notes: The session used D&D Basic V0.1 and the monsters from the latest play test package released by WotC back in September 2013.

Cast of Characters:

• Aktaias, male human wizard (soldier)
• Alethra Marsk, female human cleric (folk hero)
• Imra Bersk, male human fighter (acolyte/folk hero)
• Kayleigh, female human rogue (folk hero)

What happened before: Alethra had come to Ravenscar Abbey looking for shelter with fellow clerics of Celos, deity of the sun and wisdom. There she discovered that something was off about the nuns worshipping at the abbey. When she confronted the nuns, she had to flee from them, and she managed only to convince Imra, a young paladin in training of the falsehoods spread by the nuns. They had strayed far indeed from the faith. The two ran off the the nearby village of Sea Gull Cove.

Meanwhile Kayleigh had stood up to the tax collector sent by the abbey. She snuck into his waggon and stole the tax money back for the people of Sea Gull Cove. She was also suspecting that something wasn't quite alright in this backward corner of the kingdom of Thoran, in the middle of the Karak Tarn Forest. The taxes were just a bit too high and the tax collector a bit too cruel. [1]

Now: Alethra and Imra sought refuge at the only inn in Sea Gull Cove before looking for the captain of the guard. While they were still looking, a fighter from the Abbey confronted them. They took him to their room, and killed him when he tried to attack them. Then they went to get Aktaias, the captain of the guard at Sea Gull Cove. Kayleigh was also getting curious and overheard their conversation. The four of them decided to check out what was going on at Ravenscar Abbey on the next morning, after taking a long rest.

On their way to the abbey, they made a plan to enter through the back entrance of the walled compound. That entrance turned out to be trapped. Though Kayleigh managed to open the lock on the backdoor, she set of a fire trap that burned Aktaias badly.

They snuck into the abbey and Kayleigh was scouting ahead. She found a grisly altar dedicated to Sardyna, the eight-armed goddess of death and disease in the cellar. Meanwhile, the other three heroes where discovered. They killed Sister Cellarer in the kitchen, after discovering that she did not venerate Celos, but rather Sardyna. Then the alarm was raised. The nuns and fighters of the abbey attacked the group on the meadow behind the temple. In the ensuing combat, Aktaias managed to injure the Mother Superior gravely before being killed by her magic. In the end, the heroes were victorious. They returned to Sea Gull Cove with the corpse of Aktaias. He was laid out in state, and the mayor informed the surviving heroes that Aktaias was to be transferred back to the chapter house of the Order of the Dragon in Thaugros, a coastal city at the Gulf of Thoran.

To be continued...

Footnotes:
[1] Back story provided courtesy of the players of Alethra and Imra.

TJ1 The Barrow of the Dwarven Queen

This is the very first adventured I DMed for D&D 5e, two days after D&D Basic V0.1 was published. Since I didn't really have time for preparation, I reused the Dungeon World adventure "The Barrow of the Dwarven Queen" from two years ago.

Note: The game was based on D&D Basic V0.1 and the monsters of the last playtest package by WotC (back from September 2013).

Cast of Characters:

• Brim Smallcare, male halfling fighter (folk hero)
• Haddun, male human rogue (criminal)
• Maedric, human male cleric (soldier)
• Tendrak Talis, human male fighter (soldier)

The adventure basically followed the plot of the Dungeon World game. The characters are on their way from Solacebury to Svarturvigi, the fortress of the dwarven king Rafnar the Black. They are guarding the caravan of Sorrenson, a merchant from Solacebury. He is as always accompanied by his beautiful daughter Ingdis. The main stretch of the journey takes them through the dangerous boreal forest of Skogurhörmullegur. Haddun is scouting about 450 feet ahead, while the other three adventurers stay with the main caravan. 

As expected, they are attacked by gnolls. It is a tough fight for Brim, Maedric and Tendrak. Only Maedric's healing words save them from certain death. Meanwhile, Haddun confronts a lone gnoll scout ahead of the others. They have a rather dynamic, somewhat ridiculous fight that doesn't end well for Haddun. Fortunately, he stabilizes by himself. The others would have found him too late otherwise.

When they return to the caravan, Sorrenson tells them that his daughter has been abducted by the vile gnolls. At first, Maedric is somewhat reluctant about saving her, seeing the larger danger to the caravan. But Sorresenson pleads with them and offers gold and healing potions. Mercenary as they are, they set out after a short rest to find the gnolls.

Brim successfully leads them to a barrow in the middle of the woods. The top of the barrow is guarded by two gnolls that are taken out by some smart tactical fighting on part of the group. Then they enter the barrow. The group remembers that this might be a barrow of a cursed queen of the first dwarves who were infamous for consorting with demons. Later, the mountain dwarves and hill dwarves rose up against their successors and defeated them. The queens were imprisoned in barrows such as this.

In the lower level of the barrow, the group finds itself confronted by the ghosts of two hill dwarves that were guarding the tomb. They rise up as their remains are disturbed. After a short battle, the adventurers the ghosts are defeated. Tendrak exchanges his armor against the plate mail worn by one of the dwarven guardians. It seems to be a fine set of armor indeed (plate mail +1).

Then they break into the inner sanctum of the barrow where they interrupt a dark ceremony of a gnoll priest. Apparently, he tries to use Ingdis for some nefarious purpose with the spirit of the dwarven queen. The adventurers attack and defeat the priest. Then they proceed to loot the tomb. Brim graps the chain shirt of the dwarven queen's remains. Maedric revives Ingdis, but fails to note something very important about her.

Then the group reports back to Sorrenson to collect their reward and finally see the caravan safely to Svarturvigi.

Note: The player of Tendrak Talis has posted a play report/review on his web site in German.

Sword & Sorcery: First ideas for a Fate Hack

Recently, I had an idea for a very simplified version of Fate Core/FAE. You have two only two values on your sheet: Sword & Sorcery.

Sword: The value for sword governs all physical actions your character takes, including social actions that rely on your physical presence (such as intimidation).

Sorcery: The value for sorcery governs all mental actions your character takes, including social actions that rely on cunning and manipulation (such as persuasion or oratory).

In addition to those values, each character has a number of Talents. A talent can be sword-mastery, breaking & entering, horsemanship or seduction. If a talent applies to a roll, you get +2 on the roll. Only one talent at a time can be applied to a roll. Talents replace stunts.

The talents shouldn't be too broadly defined, but also not too narrow. Currently, I am torn between them having either the name of a profession (like swordmaster, sorcerer's apprentice, courtisan or knight) or being named like typical skills (like seduction, sword, axe, climbing).

Everything else remains like in FAE: five aspects, one stress track, consequences, four actions, four outcomes, etc.

If you like fantasy races, you could describe permissions for those races with the relationship between Sword & Sorcery. For example, elves have to have Sorcery > Sword; dwarves vice versa (Sword > Sorcery); and maybe half-elves have to have Sword = Sorcery.

I am going to refine this somemore in the next days.

Playing around with the Deck of Fate

I finally got my Deck of Fate in the mail. I want to use it for some fancy tricks during play. Here are my ideas:

The Hand of Fate: Each player is dealt three to five cards, depending on the style of the campaign. Three might be grim and gritty, four is about average and five is heroic. Instead of rolling dice, you play cards. Each card with a negative value you play, nets you a Fate point at the end of the current scene. After playing a card, you immediately draw a new one.

Fate Points:  When playing with a Hand of Fate, Fate points allow you to add +2 to the card value.

Stress: There is no stress track! Instead of taking stress, you reduce the value of a hit by discarding cards from your hand. If you cannot (or don't want to) discard any cards (because they have a zero or negative value), you take the remaining value of the hit as consequences. Cards lost to stress may not be refreshed until after a conflict. If you cannot discard any cards and don't want take any more consequences, you are taken out.

Shuffling: All discarded cards are shuffled back into the deck after either the -4, +4 or unique 0 has been played.

Storytelling RPGs: What are they?

As promised, starting from November 1, 2013 the blog is switching back to English.

David Reichgeld has arrived at an interesting definitions of storytelling RPGs:

1) A storytelling RPG gives at least one person at the table narration rights.

In a traditional RPG, the only person to hold narration rights is the GM. He alone can introduce new facts and truths into the game world. The players usually only react to the descriptions of the GM. Without any person to hold narration rights, the game is not really an RPG. In a storytelling RPG, the players have a way to gain the narration rights in some way, e.g. by rolling dice, spending tokens or playing cards. They get to add to the game world.

2) A storytelling RPG gives the players (as opposed to the GM) the right to narrate not only their actions, but also the consequences of their actions.

In a traditional RPG, the players describe their (re)actions to GM-introduced events, and the GM describes the outcome of these events. In a storytelling RPG, the players also have the right to narrate consequences to their actions. Maybe not always, maybe depending on some condition to gain the narration rights, e.g. rolling a high enough result, succeeding at their task or spending some sort of tokens.

If those two definitions are applied to RPGs, then suddenly it becomes a bit easier to separate traditional RPGs from storytelling RPGs. Indeed, suddenly you realize that the whole World of Darkness line-up, despite the name of the system are not storytelling games at all. But other games are. Houses of the Blooded, Numenera, Dungeon World and FATE come to mind. Everway, for example, shows the first glimmers of being a storytelling game. All you have to do is passing the interpretation of the fortune deck from GM to players.

Do I believe in this definition? Yes, I do. That's why I am including it in my blog. Am I going to add to that point of view? Not for the moment. But feel free to comment on this post.