Rise of the Runelord, spoilers will be spoilered


Playtest Feedback


As I mentioned in the campaign thread I'm running Rise again, with some modifications. This will be the incredibly spoilered lite thread, focusing on the playtest.

Tonight's session was mostly getting people familiar with the game and the campaign and their characters. The actual gaming consisted of some very bulletin point RPing and a random encounter...and a whole lot of ironing out kinks.

The party (all 4th level) consisted of
Qualin - a human Medium built with the intent of being on the front lines.
Ridley - a halfling Bard (archaeologist) built with the intent of skirmishing and flanking on the front lines.
Flumpstein - a dwarven Cleric who seems to be built to focus on casting/healing.
Vletter - a human Hunter (feral hunter) who seems to be built to be something of a jack of all trades/archer.
Erynrae - an aassimar (emberkin) Sorcerer who is built to be a blaster.
Monk - a human monk who is built to be a fairly basic monk.

The campaign has a couple house rules but nothing that mattered this session beyond every class has two extra skill points per level. Point buy was 25, and hit points are maxed.

The in town RPing saw mostly action from the Sorcerer and Hunter, with a little from the Medium. Nothing particularly noteworthy other than the Medium rolled a twenty for a Diplomacy check to get a discount on some horses the group ended up not buying.

The combat encounter was with a patrol of goblins in a forested setting. Three first level goblin Rogues and a third level goblin Ranger (freebooter) riding a goblin dog. The goblins were all making half hearted attempts at being stealthy, so I ruled they were essentially taking 1. The goblin dog was actually trying, so was taking 10. Goblin stealth being what it is this lead to some fairly high perception checks required.

The PCs were making no attempts at being stealthy, so the goblins noticed them from a ways off. Luckily the Hunter and Monk both rolled high enough to at least have an idea something was up ahead. The two groups became "aware" of eachother at roughly 150 feet apart.

There was some talking among the PCs, as people who hadn't rolled crazy were let in on things...and some maneuvering by the goblins...and more Perception checks. The Medium had the lowest Perception, and he and the Cleric were the last to actually spot any of the enemy.

Things started with the Hunter firing and missing, startling a goblin out of stealth...the Monk doing likewise...then the Medium following suit. Others moved up, and the goblins charged in.

There was a lot of swingy rolls, a lot of mistaken rules, and a lot of laughs. Ultimately the heroes managed to bring down all the goblins, including the Freebooter who tried to escape after his grunts were killed.

In regards to the playtest...the class is very different than the norm, and I think it's a little rough to wrap a new player's head around. He and I didn't have as much time as we planned to go over things before hand, so a lot of mistakes were made...but ultimately I get the impression the player enjoyed the class and is willing to set down and do the work to learn it. I think things will go a lot smoother after a few details are worked out...namely when class abilities are activated. I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks in this particular instance was the realizing all of the spirits aren't active. The guy seemed pretty overwhelmed by all the abilities, but things got a lot better once it was made clear you pick one spirit that morning and run with it.

The spirit in question became the Cricket...even though we kept calling in the Cyclone. Trancing to use the Treasure At The End was a large part of the damage done to the goblin Freebooter, as the circumstances ended up with a perfect 60 foot charge. I wasn't sure if the bonus ten feet from Quickness was supposed to be applied before or after we doubled his speed for the charge, but the one time it looked like it was going to batter it didn't...and a +5 to hit and +6 to damage was well appreciated.

I didn't get the impression the Medium player ever felt like he didn't have much to do this combat. He probably wasn't always sure what he could do...as he mentioned thinking about casting a spell every once in a while, but always resorted to bashing goblin skulls with his morning star.

Hoping to play again this coming sunday and have more than a single combat worth of experience to go through.

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