How do you handle difficult situations?

How do you handle difficult situations?

How do you handle difficult situations?

For example I was running Hot Springs Island and the group decided to take on a Goa warrior in hand to hand combat. Even 4 against one, this should be a tricky fight for any group of heroes.

But I couldn’t really emphasize that through the mechanics. They had enough Luck/Cunning/Points to roll 10’s for every action.

And because the success on attack is: “Deal damage. Enemies misses.” it was a total steamroll.

How would you handle this? Just tell them: “You lose. No rolls.”

Had our second game of Hot Springs Island using the latest freebooters beta.

Had our second game of Hot Springs Island using the latest freebooters beta.

Had our second game of Hot Springs Island using the latest freebooters beta.

I was dubious about marking abilities on failure, but I’m sold now. As soon as I explained how it worked, all the players eyes lit up and they began to talk excitedly about how “We better start doing more stuff and taking bigger risks!”

It was awesome.

I still think HP is too low. I gave all players +4 starting hp, but that might be because HSI is super dangerous.

The new magic table is way easier to understand, and the mages still had the most fun of any classes. It’s a shame that the other classes don’t get as much flexibility as the mages do, but they make up for it with HP and damage.

I have started to let the players develop bonds during long journeys (3-4 hours) in addition to making camp.

The new knowledge roll works really well, it’s a solid change.

How do Containers work? Do backpacks increase carry weight? I know some games have systems where you can carry a sack instead of a shield, or that some bags hold more but weigh more, etc. Just curious if there’s any kind of extra rules about wearable containers.

My group continues to enjoy the trait tags, especially the combinations of Vices and Virtues. “Hmmm, I’m virtuous but a liar? How can I play that?”

I wish some of the reference sheets were organized a bit differently. Eventually I’ll try my hand at making a ref sheet of my own, but that’s just nitpicky.

I really like the perceive move, and I plan to lean on it more next time.

I haven’t touched any of the follower, downtime, settle, or exploration moves (HSI has it’s own system for that stuff).

My only request is that the other classes get more ways to customize their options. The mage is such a standout compared to the rest. I REALLY like how you can buy custom poisons, giving something like that to the thief could be really neat (randomly generated poisons? Traps?)

Maybe the fighter can customize several tags and make their own weapon/fighting style? (DW has something kinda like this).

The cleric can pick their god’s weakenesses and domains? spend points on how they channel stuff?

I know each class needs to feel special, but the randomly generate mage spells + power combinations are SO good. SO SO good. I want more.

Anyway, thanks again Jason! We’re having a blast with Freebooters!

I played Freebooters 2e last night! We played through “Hot Springs Island” using my reference sheet for stats.

I played Freebooters 2e last night! We played through “Hot Springs Island” using my reference sheet for stats.

I played Freebooters 2e last night! We played through “Hot Springs Island” using my reference sheet for stats.

https://technicalgrimoire.com/files/HotSpringsReference.pdf

There were two new players who had never played an RPG before. This was the first time I had ever played Freebooters, but I have extensive experience with DW.

I have many thoughts!

EDIT: Just saw you updated the sheets, haha. Definitely take this with a grain of salt, we used the old ones.

Things that went well:

– Tracking resources and supplies. The marketplace sheets were super useful, and it was very easy to see how much things weighed, how many uses they had, and managing inventory. The players enjoyed the weight system. Also the penalty for carrying too much was great, and seemed like something players COULD deal with, but didn’t want to.

– Duration blended well with Hot Springs. Hot Springs has its own solid time-tracking system, and freebooters slotted extremely well into it.

– The magic system was fun as hell! We had two mages, and they both LOVED generating their spells and allocating the power costs. Very cool!

– Character creation was also fun; the vices and virtues added a lot to each character. Stats made sense, I like how the game includes the capacity for stat damage.

– The Make Camp and Keep Company moves were a big hit. Players enjoyed having the spotlight to talk to one other person and developer specific relationships.

– XP for gold seemed to flip switches in their brains. They were extremely engaged and dedicated to exploring and finding treasure, more so than I’ve seen from any other game. The character sheet especially makes this really easy to track, which is nice.

– LOVE spending luck. One of my favorite mechanics from DCC, and I’m glad to see it here.

– Alignment goals were really solid, and the players were able to embrace it in an active way.

– Really happy to see a “Retreat” move. Perfect for weak characters.

– Threads are really interesting, and remind me a bit of “Clocks” from blades in the dark. A great and simple way to handle Fronts. Love it!

Questions/Criticisms:

Feel free to ignore these, or take them with a grain of salt

– Perceive vs Saving Throw. I never really found a good opportunity to use the Perceive move. Players would ask specific questions already: “Can I see what color the creature is from this distance?” “Do they seem poisonous?” So I just used saving throws to check for success/failure.

– Characters were extremely weak. 3/5 of the party started with 1 hp. In our first encounter with a crazy old man: a mage blasted herself when the spell failed, the old man cut down the cleric, and the thief poisoned herself. Maybe give players a little more HP to start? The luck helped a little bit, but they ran out pretty quick.

– Character Creation Slow. Maybe it was because of all the new players, but the random rolling was really fun, but slowed down the game. It took us about an hour before all the characters were done. This might just need a simple online generate to fix the issue, but it was way slower than DW character creation, which mostly just involves making simple choices. Having the inventory be checkboxes might help a lot.

– The human heritage move makes no sense if you have a “Good” character.

– Establish also never saw much play. Perhaps it was because we were playing a game with a concrete world and rules, but players never got the opportunity to make stuff up.

– We didn’t use the travel moves because Hot Springs has it’s own rules, but without the rest of the book it would be hard to come up with “Discoveries”.

– Do players still get the benefit of a camp rest if something attacks them?

– Camping did NOT recover much HP (only 1 for the majority of the group). They really enjoyed camping, but were super bummed that it didn’t have much of an impact. Maybe let them roll HD twice and use worst result or something? I dunno.

https://technicalgrimoire.com/files/HotSpringsReference.pdf

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stash and Sign Up moves in 2e.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stash and Sign Up moves in 2e.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stash and Sign Up moves in 2e.

Putting away money and valuables for your next character is a fantastic idea; and the character sheets make it really easy to track that stuff.

Seriously, the character sheets in this are like…60% of the reason I want to play it. They looks great, present the info very easily, and get me excited about it.

Can I hear about experience with Freebooters? I’ve been on an OSR kick using The Black Hack.

Can I hear about experience with Freebooters? I’ve been on an OSR kick using The Black Hack.

Can I hear about experience with Freebooters? I’ve been on an OSR kick using The Black Hack.

But I heard that Freebooters makes dungeon world more OSR-ish. Is that true? Does it work well? Are things a little more dangerous?

I plan to run Hot Springs Island using The Black Hack, but my group prefers Dungeon World. Something in between the two would be brilliant!

I updated my old Dungeon World reference sheets to include rules for Flags (instead of Bonds).

I updated my old Dungeon World reference sheets to include rules for Flags (instead of Bonds).

I updated my old Dungeon World reference sheets to include rules for Flags (instead of Bonds). I hope you find it useful at the table!

https://technicalgrimoire.com/supplements

https://technicalgrimoire.com/supplements

Here’s a short guide I wrote for introducing my players to Dungeon World.

Here’s a short guide I wrote for introducing my players to Dungeon World.

Here’s a short guide I wrote for introducing my players to Dungeon World. What else is it missing? More Player advice? Tips? Helpful advice?

http://schirduans.com/david/2014/10/dungeon-world-players-intro.html

Do you guys use Defy Danger as a dodge/reaction to an attack?

Do you guys use Defy Danger as a dodge/reaction to an attack?

Do you guys use Defy Danger as a dodge/reaction to an attack?

Or do you wrap all of that up with hack and slash?

For example, you dive into the fray and attack a goblin. You succeed, and hit him.

Another goblin jumps into the pit, and attacks you…

Do you roll Defy Danger (since it’s a reaction), or is that another hack and slash roll (since you’re engaging another enemy).