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Post by sulldawga on Feb 20, 2013 19:55:47 GMT -6
Decided to bust out the Ruins of the Undercity PDF I bought and crank it up. Let's put her through her paces and see how smoothly she runs.
Of course, just to add a level of difficulty, I decided to use ACKS instead of LL but that shouldn't slow things down too much... right?
Lots of random dice rolls begin... now.
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Post by sulldawga on Feb 20, 2013 20:10:14 GMT -6
I decide first to roll up some PCs. I figure four is a good number to start with. One of the reason why I wanted to use ACKS was the existence of this fantastic Excel tool for creating and tracking characters. Extremely helpful when you just want to build some PCs quickly and move on. www.autarch.co/forums/development-and-playtest/acks-players-companion-playtest/character-sheet-excelI decide to add a little twist by numbering all of the different classes and rolling four times to see what happens. I get: Zaharan Ruinguard Thief Shaman Mystic A motley crew of adventurers, if ever there was one. Time for some more randomness. Helmond the Ruinguard gets the Doomwielder template. Rintin the Thief gets the Tomb Raider template. Ninta the Shaman gets the Runecaster template. Zor the Mystic gets the Cultist template.
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Post by sulldawga on Feb 20, 2013 20:15:32 GMT -6
Time to prepare in the city before they embark on their first adventure. A couple quick rolls show me that it takes them three days to purchase all of their equipment and another two days to recruit some henchmen.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that every day, there's a 1 in 6 chance of some event happening and they rolled a 1 right off the bat. So let's roll on the Special Event table.
Day 1 roll - 20! Secret Alcove of the Undercity. This means treasure! I love this game already.
Let's see here... treasure type is Imperial coins equivalent to 100 pp per Average Level. My party's AL is 2 so we've already got 200 platinum! Hell yeah.
Wait a minute, some more dice required. Ok. Container roll equals "sacks". Fine by me, easily portable coin is good.
One more... Protection. Hmmm... Of course, I rolled another 20. Ugh. A mimic. A 7HD mimic. Not good.
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Post by sulldawga on Feb 20, 2013 21:53:39 GMT -6
So it's time to put our DM hat on. How would this play out? The party discovers a secret alcove, containing a chest and a couple sacks sitting in front of it. No obvious guardians. The others will stand back while the thief creeps forward to check things out. He'll search for traps on the way there, obviously finding nothing.
He gets to the sacks and peeks in. Shiny! Then he'll turn to examine the chest. When he touches it, his hand sticks. And then the mimic attacks.
Or does it? I go to my copy of 1e MM (because there's no ACKS stats for a mimic) and it says that the 7 HD mimic is intelligent and may speak to adventurers if they're friendly and offer food.
Let's make a Reaction roll to see how the mimic, you know, reacts. No adjustment, as I'm ruling these 1st level hicks have no idea what they're dealing with, and wouldn't even know to attempt a parlay.
Alas, a roll of 5 equals Unfriendly. The mimic will take its best shot.
Initiative: 3 for the party, 2 for the mimic.
My instinct is to say that Rintin would attempt to free his hand, but it doesn't look like that's even an option.
Looks like it's time to attack. I decide to grant the party a very small mercy and say that they were able to buy weapons and armor on Day 1 of shopping for gear.
Rintin draws his short sword and needs a 11+. He gets a 9. Helmond draws his two handed sword and rushes in. He needs a 12+. He gets a 10. Zor enters a state of Meditative Focus, then draws a brace of daggers and attacks. He needs a 10+. He gets a 3. Ninta sees that there's not room for another two attackers (I'm probably being generous allowing four in the first place but I'm letting them surround the mimic) so she sends her totem instead.
Ninta's totem animal, a bear cub (Ninta has 16 STR), is actually pretty formidable. Despite having only 1 HD, it has three attacks and a chance to bear hug. It needs a 12+ to hit. It gets a 10, 20, and 19.
The claw attack does 2 damage. The bite does 4 damage. The mimic has 38 HP so it now has 32 remaining.
The mimic will attack the thief who's stuck. It needs a 7+. It gets a 9. Damage is 3d4 so it's... not good. 8 points and Rintin the Thief, who only had 3 HP, is crushed into a bloody pulp.
Round 2 The party may have thought about running away at that point but I decided Helmond would have just gone nuts and kept swinging so we'll try another turn.
Initiative is 6 for both the party and the mimic. Simultaneous!
Helmond swings again. 8 misses. Zor stabs and stabs. 12 is a hit. 5 damage and the mimic is down to 27 HP. Ninta will fill in the slot left open by the unfortunate Rintin and swing her short sword. She needs a 10+ to hit. 17 hits! Max damage of 8 takes the mimic down to 19 HP. The bear cub comes in swinging. 17, 1, and 8. One claw hits for 2 damage. Mimic down to 17 HP.
The mimic decides (1=Hel, 2=Zor, 3=Ninta, 4=Bear, roll=4) to attack the bear. This could be very, very bad for Ninta if she loses her cub. By some miracle, the mimic rolls a 4 and the party lives to fight another round.
Round 3 We're feeling good somehow. Probably because we're ignorant of the fact that any hit from the mimic is pretty much a guaranteed kill. Still, I'll make a morale check on the mimic since it's been reduced to 1/2 HP. Since I don't have a stat block for it, I'll go to the 1e DMG. It says a 7 HD mimic has a 80% morale. The roll is 67 so we keep going.
Initiative: 3 for the party, 4 for the mimic.
Mimic randomly chooses Zor this time. It needs a 5+ to hit Zor. The result is a 13. Zor takes 11 damage and only has three HP. Another PC turns into a pile of bloody goo and perhaps it's time to rethink this battle?
Too late for Helmond. He jumps in and hits with a 16! 11 damage (almost max for him) and now the mimic is down to 8 HP. Ninta swings and gets a 6. Miss. Can the cub finish things off? Rolls of 7, 16, and 11. The one claw hits for 1 damage. The mimic has but 7 HP.
Round 4 Another morale check for the mimic. I'll confess to not fully understanding the morale rules here but I'm adding 15% to my roll to reflect how much damage the mimic has taken. The roll is a modified 103%. That means the mimic disengages/retreats. Because I am a just and generous DM, I will give the party one more round to try to kill the mimic before I rule it escapes down some passage too small for the party to follow.
Helmond takes a mighty cut and a 14 hits! 10 damage and the mimic is dead.
That's 1140 XP, divided by the two remaining PCs. Amazing! Add in the 200 PP found, for another 1000 XP, and they're at 2140 XP, or 1070 XP each. A nice haul, even after considering neither of them gets any bonus for their prime requisite!
Some very fortunate damage rolls when they did hit, and some serious fortitude to stick around when half the party died, but no one ever got any XP for running away, right? The party takes a well deserved rest while I go roll up two new PCs.
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