Just ran a party of Freebooters (2e) through the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. It was a really fun session! Here are my impressions about the system:
– Everyone enjoyed it. Overall it ran smoothly and felt satisfying for the players.
– As the GM, the PbtA structure gives me freedom about the consequences of players rolling a failure. Knowing how deadly damage can be, I felt like I hesitated to deal damage, and it was difficult to make the game just dangerous enough. I felt like if I had run it with a DnD retroclone, it would have been less “arbitrary” and probably more challenging for the PCs. Next time, I’ll try to state the consequences before a player rolls: “On a 6-, you’ll take damage”. It might slow down play, but everything would be on the table in advance, so to say. I’ll see how it goes.
– There’s a Dwarf fighter with 18 Str. He is terrifying. The Stone Guardian in the module is mostly meant to be avoided by lvl1 PC or maneuvered around, but he just hacked it to pieces. Maybe this is related to my issue with setting the right difficulty.
– I felt like I was lacking a guideline for when to tick down Durations, so we mostly ignored them.
– I used the “threads” to decide about wandering monsters. The party was ambushed by goblins because they failed an unrelated roll earlier, and I knotted the “Goblins!” thread because I had no other move to make then. It worked well!
– The random spell generator <3
Not sure yet if it clicks for me well enough to become my default dungeon game, but I like it a lot!
Thanks for the notes, Nicolas Francart.
Yeah, the range of options open to the Judge on a 6- makes it harder for some of us (myself included) to deal potentially lethal damage. I’ve gotten in the habit of making it very clear when PC actions might get them killed. “Are you sure you want to charge that orc head-on? If you fail, you’ll take damage. How many hit points do you have again?”
Thanks for the notes, Nicolas Francart.
Yeah, the range of options open to the Judge on a 6- makes it harder for some of us (myself included) to deal potentially lethal damage. I’ve gotten in the habit of making it very clear when PC actions might get them killed. “Are you sure you want to charge that orc head-on? If you fail, you’ll take damage. How many hit points do you have again?”
Yeah that sounds like a good approach.
The thing with the superfighter was that he charged alone, rolled “No guts, no glory” to take +1 ongoing, and used his Mettle on Fight rolls. He was rolling Fight at +5, getting a 12+, and getting his mettle back.
In hindsight I should have had him make saving throws to make the combat difficult, since the guardian had a much higher reach.
Yeah that sounds like a good approach.
The thing with the superfighter was that he charged alone, rolled “No guts, no glory” to take +1 ongoing, and used his Mettle on Fight rolls. He was rolling Fight at +5, getting a 12+, and getting his mettle back.
In hindsight I should have had him make saving throws to make the combat difficult, since the guardian had a much higher reach.
I think there’s a problem there too with the mechanics. I’m thinking about either capping modifiers at +4 or including a rule where snake eyes always counts as a 6- and boxcars always counts as a 10+.
I think there’s a problem there too with the mechanics. I’m thinking about either capping modifiers at +4 or including a rule where snake eyes always counts as a 6- and boxcars always counts as a 10+.
Jason Lutes Critical hits and fumbles! I was just thinking about that last night. 2.77778% vs 5% I think it’s worth trying.
Nicolas Francart Setting stakes for any move – so critical. I think it’s worth the time; and gives both you and player opportunity to reinforce and align on the fiction.
Jason Lutes Critical hits and fumbles! I was just thinking about that last night. 2.77778% vs 5% I think it’s worth trying.
Nicolas Francart Setting stakes for any move – so critical. I think it’s worth the time; and gives both you and player opportunity to reinforce and align on the fiction.
I am planning on doing exactly the same! My F2F group have only played Apocalypse World before but they want to dip their squishy toes into fantasy/OSR so, after some research on systems/modules, I thought that Freebooters 2e and either Tomb Of The Serpent Kings or Sailors On The Starless Sea (Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel) would be the perfect introduction. Thanks for your report, it’ll prove valuable to me!
I am planning on doing exactly the same! My F2F group have only played Apocalypse World before but they want to dip their squishy toes into fantasy/OSR so, after some research on systems/modules, I thought that Freebooters 2e and either Tomb Of The Serpent Kings or Sailors On The Starless Sea (Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel) would be the perfect introduction. Thanks for your report, it’ll prove valuable to me!