Finally got round to playing session #2 of #AFistfullofDarkness. From our first session, the players (a Gamble, a Shot and a Totem) before we even set foot in a score, managed to murder a wealthy mine owner because they didn’t agree with him keeping slaves. They lured him out to Mourning Woods by seducing him with the Gamble, and then killed him.
They then proceeded with the score; saving the Miners trapped in the Mudwater Hellstone mine. Someone had struck a deal with a demon lord and started a ritual to release him from the netherrealm (or where ever it is that demons come from). We tested out the Dungeon generator rules, but after session 1 I all but abandoned it in favour of the more Blades-esc style score. Some things I liked about the dungeon generator was that it gave clear objectives, loot from dead enemies, and gave a score type that wasn’t against another person, but against whatever is in the “dungeon”. What I didn’t like was that each enemy (or group of enemies) was given a clock level difficulty to “overcome” it (with the difficulty of the clock remaining the same regardless of how you approached the situation; my players came upon a sleeping 12-clock shadow demon and spent a very large chunk of time sneaking past it by filling said clock and lost almost all their Grit in doing so). So after we closed for the session, I decided to abandon the enemy clocks and go for a more blades style enemy system for session 2.
Session 2 began with the players entering the ritual chamber, where a staff was sealed into a stone, had a pentagram of blood at its base, and was shooting a lazer into the air, generating a portal that a massive demon was coming through. After evading a large fire demon, and finding a large lorry with a drill on it’s front, the players managed to destroy the staff and seal the portal, as well as rescue the survivors in the cave. Removing the clocks for enemies made this a much smoother experience and was a lot less taxing on the player’s Grit pools.
Next session the players have to deal with the new “They find the body” clock, as I decided to roll Security clock in the payoff section of the score. That’s another thing I love, these values for law, chaos, wealth etc in a town are awesome plot hooks!
All in all we’ve been having a blast playing!
Thanks for the feedback! Very cool that you and your group had a good time. I’m all smiles, here 🙂 🙂 🙂
I will think about those enemy clocks and if they should differ depending on the method of the players. I thought that clocks are about the goal and not the method and PCs could use the perfect method to fill a clock quick versus using a bad method with limited effect etc.
BUT: Have to check my text again to see if I wrote there what I think now and you did right with skipping it, because what doesn’t fit at your table just has to go.
Glad you like those location attributes. I added them as an afterthought and it’s cool that they do their job in game, which is driving plot. 🙂
One request: Would you please post which Special Abilities your PCs chose? It would be cool to know which ones are appealing and how they work out in the game. Thanks in advance for your time and effort.
BTW still working on those roll20 sheets and I will have a alpha/beta version ready til the end of september.
Stefan Struck Sure! 🙂 The Thunderheart took Totem’s Vessel picking an Armadillo Totem that contains an Armadillo animal spirit inside it, giving him cool armadillo-like powers.
The Gamble took Miss Fortune (love the pun btw). She’s linked the power fictionally it to her free lucky trinket her playbook gets.
The Shot took Smoke & Mirrors (came in handy last session!) Because it fit his backstory of being part of a travelling group of actors who perform stunts.
Yeah in theory clocks and effect levels work, but in practice it just became a bane for the players. Having just position or effect let me narrate what made sense in the fiction better and made them seem more badass which worked out!
Thanks for the infos. Totem’s Vessel is a good choice. I hope you see some good scenes from it and don’t find it too overpowered.
Misfortune: Sounds like a great superpower ability, curious when the additional Doom will be too great a pain.
Smoke & Mirrors was meant to create cool scenes and it did in your game. So, mission accomplished. 🙂
Yes about the clocks. Maybe clocks are ok in general but to big in size in the current rules. And you can always skip them.