SERTORIUS PLAYTEST JUNE 23, 2013
This was a playtest of three people: two players (A&B) and a GM. It was set in the Caelum Repubic, a vast area mainly made up of orcs. Player A ran a Hasri Sertori named Balu. Player B ran an Orc Sertori named Cael Turatani. At the start of the adventure the characters were both members of the Caelcori, an organization who operate at the direction of the Senate to prevent Sertori from gaining politically powerful positions. The Caelcori were created in the wake of the tyranny of Poro Sertorius (the first known Sertori). Not all Sertori in the Republic are expected to join this order but they must abide by their rules.

Overview
Cael and Balu were summoned by Juventar, the head of the Caelcori and told to investigate possible trouble in the province of Aetorus (a bit of a resort region for powerful senators and aristocrats, but also an important center of learning and invention). According to Juventar, he had received a message sent by General Hilarus Fulvar, governor of Aetorus. Apparently the messenger was found dead and there was some question concerning the authenticity of the letter, but it stated that the general was unhappy with the two Caelcori officials currently assisting him, and he would like them replaced. Juventar instructed Cael and Balu to go to Aetorus and investigate the two Sertori: Pora Lurani and Daethronus Malavine.

Juventar offered to cast Thekla’s Secret Pathway, a risky method of transporting people over great distances. He failed to cast it properly and brought back a spirit from the ethereal realm, which possessed him. Juventar attacked Cael with a Bolt of Fury, doing 4 wounds (almost enough to kill). Balu calmed Juventar with Captivation and found some Tribunes to help restore Juventar. In the wake of the incident, the two decided to travel to Aetorus by ship.

Upon arrival in the province, the characters were given quarters in the Governors palace and told he would be available for an audience in the morning. Cael ordered musicians, food and wine before going to sleep. In the morning Cael noticed (on a successful Detect roll) that his hair had been snipped. Balu experienced illness, which a medicine roll determined was most likely a result of mandrake poisoning. Cael was unaffected by the poison, so summoned a physician to provide an antidote to Balu.

The characters spoke with Governor Fulvar and learned that he never sent any message, and that he was satisfied with the Caelcori serving his province. They did learn that one of his servants had been killed, and this was likely the messenger that Juventar found. They set out to learn more about the man, when they learned that a wife of one of the general’s officers had been murdered in the streets of the city.

Investigating, the characters found the body of an orc woman, with an arrow in her neck. A witness (a drunk) reported she had been killed by a Hasri, and that an orc had rushed to her aid to fend off the Hasri, before disappearing in a golden mist. As the investigation unfolded, they interviewed all the Hasri in the city. There were only three, and use of magic determined that none were involved. This seemed suspicious and Cael remembered his lock of hair. He inspected Balu to see if he was missing anything from his body and they found some scales had been taken. The player running Cael had the skill Magic: Misos, a knowledge skill. He asked the GM if he knew of any spells that required hair or bits of skin from people in order to make replicas. The GM decided that because the player had two ranks in the skill, he knew that there was a spell called Malevolent Mockery that did exactly that.

The characters then interviewed all the servants who had been in their room the night before. They forced on of them to confess involvement in the poisoning and obtaining the hair and scales. She told them that the Sertori, Pora, had offered to make her ten years younger in exchange for these acts. Cael and Balu decided to forgive the servant and recruit her as a spy against Pora. They then went to the governor Fulvar and asked for permission to arrest Pora and Daethronus. Fulvar was hesitant, and said he needed more evidence. On a successful Detect roll Balu and Cael noticed that Fulvar seemed younger than before. Cael immediately attacked the Governor with a spell called flying steel, which empowered his sword. However Pora had been magically concealed the whole time and cast Arch of Protection, which produces a massive gold dome to defend against attacks. Cael’s strike was thwarted. The governor fled and seemed content to let the Sertori work it out amongst themselves. Balu used Captivation to enchant Pora and encourage her to enter into parlay. The group left the palace for further discussion but were confronted by the Malevolent Mockery of Balu. Cael used Earth Mastery to create a pit below the replica, and it fell inside. But the mockery of Balu retaliated with Captivation and enchanted Cael.

The real Balu diffused the situation by casting Unity, which linked everyone mentally and emotionally, enabling both sides to see through the other’s efforts at deception. The Capitivations were dropped and a discussion had between Cael and Pora. Cael acknowledged that he and Balu were not in a position to arrest her or Daethronus because she clearly had the upper hand. He inquired about her intentions. She said she had no desire to kill them, but wished to go against the Caelcori and form a council of Sertori to replace the Senate. In the course of the conversation, Balu and Cael learned that she had many supporters, both provincial governors and members of her order. Cael offered to go to the Caelcori with her demands and help arrive at a compromise to avoid civil war. Pora agreed.

Juventar was at first reluctant to entertain Pora’s demands, but Cael and Balu convinced him that Civil War was unavoidable if she wasn’t taken seriously. Juventar decided to ask the senate to vote on the matter in the second capital, Poro Deus (which was more neutral than Cael). Pora agreed to appear and make her case before the senate, while Balu would make the case for maintaining the old ways. Cael spoke with Pora prior to the vote and got her assurances that she would work slowly within the system if the Senate didn’t go her way, rather than initiate civil war.

The senate voted to keep the old ways.  

Findings
It was noted that the Angry Spirit entry wasn’t in the monster section yet, despite being mentioned as a possible encounter for a failed casting of Thekla’s Secret Pathway. This was fixed.

Have a backlog of playtest reports to post. But in the meantime the art for our races just came in and I did a blog preview here:

http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/sertorius-preview-races.html

Here is a playtest report from August. This one is part of an ongoing campaign and is two or three sessions in:

Overview
This was a playtest involving six players and one GM. In the scenario we continued with a campaign set in Donyra, where Sertori are worshipped as gods. The party is part of the local pantheon, each having their own temple and followers.

Characters
Alyssa: Human Sertori (god of alcohol)
Barka: Dwarven Sertori (god of coffee)
Vesta: Hasri Sertori (god of assassins)
Grolf: Gru Sertori (prophet of sur vanker and of battle)
Stoutgut: Dwarf Sertori (god of merriment)
Hamil: Dwarf Sertori (god of healing and pain)

Events
The group had just returned from rescuing one of their companions taken by the Cult of Sukat (who hunt down and sacrifice Sertori to Sarilla). Upon their return to Donyra there was a meeting of the pantheon. The unofficial leader, Apion, advocated an assault upon the Cult's nearby mountain complex. It was decided a scouting team would go in first, followed by a war party.

As it turned out, the scouting party was all they required.  Upon arrival the group (which included all six player characters as well as two ogres and a few followers) captured a guard and learned the password from him. Using that information Vesta, Alyssa, Barka and Stoutgut gained entrance using a rouse and began an attack once inside. Grolf and Hamil attacked the guards outside. Ultimately the party killed all the guards, with Impaling Spike being the most effective spell during battle.
 
The party interrogated a survivor and learned the location of a rear exist/entrance to the complex. They decided to split up and draw out the rest of the cultists, taking them from each side. To do this, they sent in a survivor to let the rest of the temple know a group of Sertori were making an attack.

Both attacks succeeded. Hamil used ultimate sacrifice to wipe out those leaving the southern entrance. Alyssa and Grolf led the northern entrance assault where Vortegan's Whirling Catastrophe was the deciding factor. While effective, the spell failed on its initial casting and subjected both Grolf and Alyssa to its cyclone of carnage. Grolf survived, but Alyssa was killed.

They returned to Donyra and sought out a caster to perform Merciful Plea, which staves off death for up to a month. The casting failed. Though initially it seemed a success, Alyssa was turned into a zombie (which is one possible result of a failed casting). Still vaguely in possession of her faculties and able to ward off some of the effects of undeath through the correct diet, Alyssa remains in the party (if at arm's length). The matter was looked into and it was decided, because her soul is most likely still anchored to her body, if they can find a Sertori with the Raise Dead Thauma (a type of Miracle), it may be possible to restore her to life. Likely this will be their next order of business.

Observations
Spells are generally effective. In some cases we need to examine things like duration. A few points of clarification need to be made in entries as well where ambiguity arose.

The structure of adventuring while having temples and followers seems to work. The players enjoy having their followers and playing politics, but adventure is still possible. The key difference between this and a classic RPG party is Sertori are formidable out of the gate and can take on some of the bigger challenges in the setting from day one. This is a feature, rather than a flaw. Being able to take out an entire temple without really stepping foot inside was rewarding and led to some interesting developments. This would not have been possible against a temple with more powerful inhabitants.
The zombification of Alyssa was where things really seemed to turn. It opened up a lot of questions about the setting: Can Raise Dead work on a zombie? Can a zombie have some retention of its identity? Etc. Most of the answers were easily intuited by the setting cosmology and descriptions of Zombies, Raise Dead, and Merciful Plea. The GM had to adapt some of the zombie text to the situation, so that ought to be updated for clarity. Raise dead, interestingly, benefits a lot from such a brief entry. It is only one sentence and that made it very easy to understand. Merficul Plea, it was decided, needs fewer time restrictions. The text for zombies and other undead that players can become through casting of certain spells, will be updated to include clearer guidance on the transition.

PLAYTEST REPORT: 9/21/2013
Filed by Bill

CHARACTERS
This session involved three characters in the city of Donyra, where Sertori are worshiped as gods:

Player A: Leuahni a Human warrior
Player B: A nameless Kobold beggar
Player C: Golgar the Gru berserker

ADVENTURE
A farmer was seen running toward them, frantic and ranting about giant insects eating the crops...and one of the farmers.

Perhaps out of kindness, or a sense of duty, or simple curiosity, they quickly hurried to the farms outside Donyra, guided by the farmer. They saw about twenty golden locusts, each half the size of a human, about 500 yards away. The locusts were devouring crops, and worse, a hideous Harpy was apparently controlling the locusts to some extent.

The party moved closer, the locusts remaining occupied with eating crops while the Harpy began to sing as it watched them draw closer.

The song of the Harpy began to make the three unusually angry at each other, but did not immediately instigate violence upon each other.

Golgar cast Splintering of Yuam, and the resulting four Golgars launched a volley of arrows at the harpy. Golgar's aim was excellent, but the arrows proved ineffective against the harpy; only magic can hurt this creature.

Leuahni and the nameless beggar succumbed to the harpies song and attacked one another; a distraction that was certainly to the harpy's benefit.

The four Golgars each cast Grasp from Beyond, creating a multitude of ghostly hands all around the Harpy, and immobilizing it.

The harpy was still able to sing, and also call the locusts to attack.

The nameless beggar and Leuahni regained their senses just in time to fend off the locusts; the Beggar cast Warding Wall and used it cleverly to repeatedly wound the dim witted insects, and Leuahni cast a spell that encased her arms in stone to parry the locusts.

Leuahni realizing the stone covering her arms might harm the Harpy, struck it while the creature was still held by the grasping hands, and wounded it.  

Golgar realizing magic was needed to kill the harpy, directed the grasping hands to do harm at the expense of restraining the Harpy.

The badly wounded harpy managed to fly away, while the three finished off the remaining locusts.

The three followed the harpy's blood trail to its lair, a cave a few miles from the farms. They could hear two harpies singing inside the cave, and chose to retreat back to Donyra to get help.

A local sertori named Apion, an over confidant blowhard, offered to march back to the cave with them to deal with the harpies.

PLAYER OBSERVATIONS
Player A felt some durations were too short, so we should keep durations in mind when we sweep through the spells. I would not be surprised if a few spells need a longer or shorter duration.
 
Player B uses Invigorating Cauterization and Warding Wall in a similar manner; 'failing' is potentially useful

He used Cauterize to inflict wounds by failing intentionally; seems fine, as it is a touch spell that hurts one victim.

Warding wall can do a wound to things that pass the cathartic wall, so setting the Target Number low is actually good if you want the enemy to take damage through more than to fend them off.
 
Player C made excellent use of Splintering of Yuam, and the total success he got with Grasp from Beyond made that spell quite effective.

Also, Grasp from Beyond made use of the Restrain rules which people felt were quite functional.

This sounds like Exalted.

Quote from: Archangel Fascist;692796This sounds like Exalted.

People have mentioned exalted to me in some of the playtests, but most also say the game isn't all that similar once you play. I have never played exalted, so I can't speak to how close it is. Our games also use a d10 dice pool, so I imagine exalted players might find it familiar. The specifics of the game though, from what I have been told by others, are quite different. Our dice pools work by taking your single highest result and comparing it to a TN. They also cap out at six dice. The spells themselves are all keyed to skills and based around four emotion types (your rank in the emotion determines the power of your spell). You can gain more spells by acquiring followers, and eventually gain major powers that are like miracles.

Games we were consciously drawing inspiration from were Ravenloft, HARN, Dark Sun, d20, etc.

Also, still looking for more playtesters for the final phase of development if anyone has the time and interest. The file is quite hefty, 644 pages in Microsoft Word (which will come to just under 400 pages in when it's released). Much of this is setting though, the major rules of play (character creation, spells, equipment, and core system) are all contained in the first 260 pages.

We decided to do a feee module PDF with the release of the rulebook (the module will be free for anyone who wants it, so no other purchase required). It is going to be a mystery, if we have the time and resources we may do another as well, probably more of a dungeon crawl (but right now our focus will be on the one). We are looking for people to playtest the module if anyone is interested.

PLAYTEST REPORT, 9/29/2013
Filed by Brendan

This session involved two characters and began in the city of Donyra, where Sertori are worshiped as gods:

Player A: Hafar, a Hasri leader
Player B: Barka, a dwarf merchant

ADVENTURE
This adventure catches up with Barka and Harfar after Alyssa had been turned into a Zombie. In an effort to cure her, Barka had his temple priests search for information and rumors about anyone with the power to restore the dead to life. He learned about a wandering scholar with a map of the Lost City of Sarr. According to legends, the city's library contained The Sarrian Book, a magical scroll with numerous powers one unleashes by reading its text. Supposedly it contained a passage on resurrecting the dead. Since it was their only lead, Hafar and Barka contacted the merchant and purchased a copy of the map, then funded an expedition to the lost city.

The map placed the city in a nearby mountain, so they hired mountaineers, pack mules and 20 soldiers. They also brought Barka's ogre, Preechat. The mountaineers were useful and helped them find the city entrance without incident, otherwise they surely would have become lost in the mountain trails. Near the peak of the mountain, they found stone stairs that led several hundred feet to the city entrance. At the apex of the stairs was a thirty foot gap between them and opening into the city. To get everyone across, Barka used Reshaping of Satree to turn into a giant eagle.

Inside they found an enormous stone and iron door with a complex locking mechanism. The lock was too well crafted for the party to pick. Perhaps if they brought someone with the right equipment or skills they could have breached it, but instead they tried force. Because the doors were too heavy for a man to move, they had Preechat force it open. He was able to use his superior size and strength to open it enough that the party made it through. On the other side of the door they found a bridge beyond a doorway guarded by stone statues in the shape of soldiers. They sent a soldier ahead who reported the statues were moving. Barka tested them with the Daydream Spell, sending in illusions to gauge the statue's speed and attacks. It was decided the statues only sought to obstruct, not to kill intruders, so they attempted to speak with them.

In a long conversation with the statues, Hafar and Barka learned that the creatures were normal men, recently turned to living stone by a Gorgon who they voluntarily served. In exchange for their service, she transformed their bodies into stone (something both soldiers considered desirable because it made them impervious to many attacks). The soldiers were friendly but under instructions to let no one pass. Because neither Barka nor Hafar possess powerful combat spells, they decided take a less confrontational path with the guardians. Hafar cast Captivation and eventually convinced them that the Gorgon would consider the Sertori valuable allies. They were led to the interior of the city, where they found the Gorgon, four Sertori and several other soldiers.

The meeting started with hostility from the Sertori, but Hafar and Barka earned an opportunity to speak with the Gorgon. She introduced herself as Marilith and was adamant that the Sarrian Book, when discovered, belonged to her, because she arrived first. They also learned that she had not always been a Gorgon and wished to be a normal human again. Because it was clear they could not defeat Marilith and her allies, Barka offered an arrangement. He explained that they were merely trying to use the book to restore a dead companion and did not wish to possess it permanently. They would help her find the book, and they would pledge their lives to help remove her Gorgon curse, if she granted them a one-time use, to raise Alyssa from the dead. Marilith agreed to these terms.

When they reached the library, Barka was able to find the book by casting Eyes of Knowing. He then gave the scroll to Marilith, who explained it contained a spell which could send users back in time (but not forward). She intended to use this ability to prevent her past self from becoming a Gorgon. If the party went with her, she could convince her past self to cast a Thauma (Raise Dead) that would save Alyssa—since becoming a Gorgon, she had lost this power. Barka and Hafar agreed, provided they had a few days to make arrangements and contact the rest of the party.
 
OBSERVATIONS

We found a few issues of clarity with some of the spells, which were fixed after the playtest. Mainly minor issues. In a couple of cases, spells used skills that didn't seem appropriate, so there was discussion about changing those.

The original Gorgon, didn't have the ability to create living statues, but Bill's decision to give it this power for the adventure seemed like a cool idea, so we changed the Gorgon entry to include that ability.

Going back in time obviously presents challenges. The Returning power used by the Sarrian Book seems like it covers everything neatly, but we need to see it in action. Interacting with yourself in can produce random changes, and some of them are quite dangerous. The GM has a lot of room for interpretation here so we will make a point of observing how the current write-up for Returning works in practice.

Ogres have Beast Strength (X2) and this is very useful for getting through locked doors.

Cover is almost done: http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/sertorius-cover-preview.html

Are there any mechanics previews to look at?

Quote from: Archangel Fascist;699238Are there any mechanics previews to look at?

Not yet. I should have those up as we move into layout. It is the same core system as our other games (excluding Arrows of Indra): Terror Network, Servants of Gaius, Horror Show and Crime Network. Like I said in an earlier post, pool of d10 based on your skill rating, take the single highest result and compare to a Target Number. Spells are keyed to skills and they can be cast all day long if you like. However if you use them at full power you risk gaining afflictions. There is also a system in the game for gaining followers and growing your power.

Here is a new update: http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/sertorius-book-of-archon.html

Had first test run of Beneath the Banshee Tree over the weekend. It went well. Making alterations based on feedback and planning to run it again this weekend. The structure seems to work fine. Some of the details in the text need to be called out more, and some redundant information needs to be placed in multiple locations in the module (so whether the GM is looking at the NPC entry, the location entry, etc he has what he needs).

Had two successful playtests of Beneath the Banshee tree in the past couple of weeks. It seems to be smooth and work as intended. Had to smooth over a few details, but we found in practice the information the GM needed was easy to find, and the overall structure was effective.

In the module there is an ongoing mystery surrounding a person who is draining local Sertori of their magic and creating malevolent duplicates in the process. Each day a different Sertori is targeted and this is determined randomly by a d10 roll. I was a bit worried about that aspect because even though the module only runs for about 4 days before the antagonists turns into a Grim and unleashes something terrible on the city, the GM still needs to familiarize himself with all ten possibilities. However this proved not to be a problem in the two playtests.