OK, here's a quick rundown of this morning's "hangover session" of FtA!:
We ran a second trial session of FtA. Our combat last night had gone pretty smoothly, and with the group wanting to try some new stunts and such, it was time for another session.
Again, our characters consisted of a human warrior, an elven wizard (leaning towards the bardic path; in FtA, "wizard" is a general term for a magic-user; the players decides if the MU takes the traditional arcane or divine path, or goes further afield as a druid or rune mage, etc.), and a halfling rogue-wizard (a more instinctive, untrained, soemwhat minor magic-user, which turned out to be a really good fit for the halfling). The three, fresh off their subdual of the "minor" gobbo threat of the previous evening, were loudly regaling the crowd at Roadbump's only inn, the Galumphing Griffon, where several of the locals were getting tired of Slyboots the Halfling's constant boasting of their great battle.
"If you lot are so mighty," growled Roan the Village Drunk/Blacksmith/Oaf/Bully, "why don't you go down to the Tomb of Rottoak?"
A hush came over the inn's crowd. Seems the old wicked Baron Von Rottoak, dead these 50 years, had believed he COULD take it with him, and had built himself a tomb that was more of a labyrinth than anything. Keep away graverobbers and all that. And if a wicked, evil, likely insane noble can't build a crypt that's rumored to be both the source of wandering ghouls, a bandit hideout, and the resting place of a giant treasure hoard, who can?
Slyboots and the party quickly accepted. After all, everyone knew the Von Rottoaks had made a ton in the gem trade over the years. Why not check out the action and impress the townies while at it?
So Slyboots, Anders the Bold (human warrior), and Marius (our resident elf) decided to trek on down to the Tomb to see what they could find. They ran into a bit of trouble when they disturbed a dreaded Giant Python, which they dispatched rather handily with some excellent coordination--Marius used a Light spell to blind the snake, Anders gave him a mighty stab with his Longspear, and Slyboots Stunted with his Acrobatics to get past some rocky terrain into battle in time to be surprisingly effective with his dagger. (Anders actually rolled a critical, allowing him to roll 3d6 and add it to his total. In the game, pure warriors crit when they roll triples of any number except one of the 3d6s).
The Giant Python was a pretty tough creature, but with three opponents working together, it went down quite quickly.
Upon reaching the clearing that housed the Tomb of Rottoak, Slyboots spotted two Orc guards outside its massive oaken doors. Marius decided to use his Whisper spell to distract the guards, but failed his roll horribly. He not only suffered 2 Hit Points of damage, but he had also rolled TRIPLE 1s, which in the 3d6-based game a nasty, nasty fumble, and doubled that 2 HP into 4 HP (knocking him unconscious). Going to the charts, Marius' player now discovered the elf was struck with "nervous trembling", and had lost one point of DEX. Yipes. (Worst-case scenario? Pretty much. The severe fumble table only comes into play for really, really awful rolls like that one--I'm glad we got an example in so early, even if Marius isn't). Pulling their senseless comrade away, the players decided to regroup, and wait until the dawn to press their attack.
The night passed without incident, and in the morning the party, including the now-shaky Marius returned to the Tomb. There, they saw a band of 8 Orcs, including one wearing a rather impressive helm, appearing to gather up for a raiding party. Anders confidently asserted Orcs were a cowardly, superstitious lot, and charged into the clearing, gunning right for the helmed Orc, who appeared to be a chieftain of sorts.
In one round, Anders was on the ground, unconscious. The results of the melee were such that the Orcs, concentrating most of their attacks on a single opponent, attacked such that Anders took the brunt of the melee damage distribution. (Again, the combat system does not reward lone wolf tactics. At all). Slyboots and Marius, both attempting distance attacks, were of no use.
Marius was short on offensive power, and Slyboots was no great shakes, either. But of all things, Slyboots used a singularly whupass stunt to get them out of the jam. He used his only spell, Audio Illusion, and then stunted again with Bluff (beating a Difficulty Check of 20), making the sound a great band of horsemen bearing on the Orcs from the West. The Orcs wavered, and then with Marius using his Light spell to blind and confuse several of the uncertain, they skedaddled, the Orc chieftain leaving that strange helm at the entrance to the tomb.
Slyboots then stunted with his Climb skill, pulling himself up in a tree to pull off an otherwise impossible (but ultimately ineffectual) parting shot with his sling at the fleeing Orcs (system note: I assigned this move at a Difficulty Check of 20, which he just met).
Marius then used one of his strange green Elven potions to revive Anders, and the group, deciding they had wasted quite enough time already, decided to try to open the great wooden doors (surprisingly sturdy and intact), and found that they swung effortlessly inward. Meanwhile, after carefully washing it out with water from his waterskin, Slyboots tried on the dropped Orcish helm. It was too big by half, and nearly obscured his field of vision, but Slyboots suddenly felt 3 times as aware and attuned with his surrounding world than he ever had before. (Note: that would be a Helm of Keen Sense, right enough, with a +10 to Perception...but perhaps some other side effects as well).
That's where we ended for the evening. Short, but sweet, and things ran very quickly. We had some other obligations to see to, but all agreed to finish up the dungeon next session.
GM's Notes:
-I liked the damage distribution in combat very much. It made allotting damage to account for foolhardy moves (such as Anders' charge) very easy, and brought that particular incident to a halt rather quickly.
-I was thinking about using the optional "Goon" rules for more of a high fantasy feel. Using the goon rules, minor opponents only roll 1d6 instead of 3d6 as part of their attack. As you can see, a party that works together can take on larger opponents; one that does not quickly learns even minor foes can be dangerous when they are massed as a group.
-I think depending on the game you run, a GM has to be very careful with the stunts you allow. Like a lot of stuff in FtA, its a simple idea, but a cool one. I really feel like just the idea of stunting and looking for ways to press those advantages helped my players think more outside the box of "roll, hit, roll, miss". I like simple ideas that empower great ones.
-There is little, if anything in this game that has not been done before, but I will say FtA! does an above average job of bringing together what many people would consider "heartbreaker" and old-school elements, but puts them together in a way that seems to work out pretty well. My players are enjoying it, and have seemed to pick it up pretty quickly. They don't like adding in so many modifiers on some of the rolls, so I think all of them had their "oft-used" numbers written down somewhere by night's end. My wizard is feeling a little constrained right now, but he's hanging in there, and I did mention there were some interesting magic items rumored to be in the Von Rottoak family treasury at one point...
-Adventure Points: Called many other things in many other systems. I haven't given 'em out yet, because I think with stunting, this game is as cinematic as I want right now. Adventure Points can be used as bonuses on rolls, just like Action Points, Cinema Points, whatever you want to call 'em. On the other hand, they might make some of the more near-impossible stunting possible, which might be a plus. I honestly just don't know yet.