OK, ran a first session of DW as the heroes investigated The Bloodstone Idol. I read Anarchangel23’s XP experiment
http://anarchangel23.livejournal.com/437462.html and changed the highlights to his choices.
We played with 3 players while the women-folk went Christmas Shopping – a Dwarf Fighter named Tench Veingold (son-in-law), a human cleric named Baern (brother – pastor!) and a thief named Bose (my youngest daughter’s boyfriend) banded together to find a wizard...
Spent about an hour making characters and learning the moves, then went right to play.
And the story begins…
[Seeing two factions at the door to the hall, Bose rolls Discern Realities and asks “Who’s really in control here” – I answer the lizardmen are invaders, which Bose passes on to Tench]
Determined to seek vengeance upon his father’s killer, Bose invokes the aid of his uncle Baern to find the foul villain said to be near the Hall beneath the Hill. Tench, sworn knight-protector to Andar’s Lightbringer Cleric now stands between two warring races – goblins and lizardmen – that guard the entrance to the caverns below. Just moments ago, a spear clattered at Tench’s feet and he knows he has some choices to make. He looks in askance to his master, who smiles back and says, “Wait”.
[Baern rolls charm person (his bonus spell) and succeeds 10+. Convinces the goblins to steel up their courage – from here the combat should be self-explanatory]
With enticing charm, the cleric announces to the goblin who threw the spear, “we come not to war upon thee as our wrath is only for those who follow the reprobate Grundloch. If you desire to be free, then rally to our side. If you agree then we shall help destroy thy enemies!” He then looks back at Bose and smiles. His discerning nephew will one day become a prince – of thieves – unfortunately.
The small goblin realizes the advantage this new party adds against the lizard foes and leaps out of his barricade, passes Tench to retrieve his spear and hands it to the surprised dwarf while saying in broken common, “Prove to destroy!”
Tench grunts in goblin, “pierce the cold ones’ skulls.” Then with a wicked laugh, the dwarf hurls the spear towards the lizardmen’s barricade. The shot goes wild and lizardmen skullcrushers rush the dwarf, with the closest one smashing his hammer against the short one’s shield. The shock of mace to metal awakens a deep well of anger in the dwarf and he retaliates with a demolishing blow that crushes the lizardman’s chest.
Meanwhile, Bose has hidden away into the brush and gotten snarled in the thorny blackberries. If he is not careful, his backpack will tear.
With a simple point to the sky with one hand and a sword pointed to a lizardman, the cleric lunges forward, damaging the cold-blooded creature, but also feeling the crush of the mace as it connects with his side. The cleric falls to one knee, praying that the next lizardman’s blow will miss, and is surprised to see the awful mace clatter before his hands. Two goblins have pounced on the lizard and are clawing its eyes out!
Bose wriggles out of his predicament and is ready to sneak up on a lizardman hiding behind the barricade and watching the fight beyond.
Tench, seeing his master struggling, leaps toward Baern and takes a defensive posture against two lizardmen advancing towards him. Baern stands and steps back to catch his breath, laying hands upon himself. Though refreshed, Andar demands greater communion with the cleric. It appears the god of healing and restoration is a bit vexed over Baern’s provocative use of his charm spell.
Bose, on the other hand, is beginning to have a better day. He successfully sneaks up on the lizardman and is able to deliver a killing backstab. He looks over the barricade to see the two lizardmen closing in on Tench. Three goblins lay dead and the rest have given up the fight to go towards the large doors. The thief also notices a nasty swinging log trap that might have a chance to knock the lizardmen for a loop. If only he can get to it in time.
One lizardman rushes Tench and strikes true and the fighter brushes aside the blow easily, but the second one delivers a more solid blow. Tench changes stance and swings back on the first one. The attack succeeds, but the dwarf takes a nasty rap to his helm in the process.
Bearn rallies to his protector’s defense, lending aid as well as he can.
Bose runs toward the tree with the swinging trunk. He spends a moment carefully gauging the angle of attack to ensure he won’t hit his friends when he cuts the rope.
Meanwhile, Tench, enjoying the boost given by Baern, delivers a final blow to the bloodied lizardman. No sooner than he dispatches the creature, he hears Bose scream “duck”. Tench’s instincts go into action and he hits the deck just as the log sails over his head and catapults the remaining lizardman towards the door – where a half-dozen globlins tear him to shreds!
The party meets Glug and Bearn parleys a truce for one night to go find the evil wizard who killed Bose’s father. Glug agrees and the heroes enter the hall. Bose noticed the whistles the goblins carry and managed to pickpocket one away. He does not know its function, but that will have to wait until next week. The women have returned…
OK – wow! Bose has never played an RPG before. The way he was talking to my daughter afterwards about the game is guaranteed to label him a massive geek. I hope my daughter won’t dump him after this! She is not into gaming. I think I made a mistake…
I really liked the fluid mechanic. No initiative makes it easy to do a few actions and then do a “meanwhile” switch to someone else. I did that with Bose discerning the log trap because it made sense and didn’t negatively affect the others. I can see that some bounding on that should be mentioned to avoid one person having multiple impacting events before others go.
We had a blast and I wonder how things will turn out next time.
The alternate XP mechanic works well. Each player really got creative in order to get a tick mark.