Recap: Silly Romperoo, Season 1 Episode 10

And this fight is over.

Someone's arm got cut off, but that's ok, because it got better.

Cast

Nanako

Provided Portrait.

Nanako was not originally named Nanako, she used to be someone else, and was a well educated in mystic archery noble warrior of a wood elven court. She was the Seventh of Seven elven warriors chosen to defend a poor village against The Evil. The villagers were poor and could pay only in rice, and when Nanako heard about treasure she ran off to check for it and left her flank of the village unguarded. The Elf Lord wasn't so happy, so he took away her name (renaming her Nanako), title, and made her swear to own no more than she could carry. He also took away all the treasure she found to. There, you might not do anything with it, but my horrible backstory

Placeholder portrait

Sue

A Musketeer and two handed swordswoman with an unusual pedigree.

Provided Portrait

Isaac

An unusually youthful student of the Kabbalah, a fact hidden by his head of grey hair, Isaac Cordovero was amongst the most gifted students of the lot, displaying an affinity for the Sephirah Chokhmah to the extent of displaying talent even in the most hidden arts. However, his relative inexperience with life - not even forty years of age - had him passed over for the position of Rebbe at the Yeshiva and told to experience life to its fullest in order to gain a complete understanding of the nature of Ein Sof, as required of the greatest thaumatologists.

Also can't find a source.

Brashly confident in his powers, Isaac chose to join an adventuring party, hoping to bring fame and glory to the Yeshiva and, above all, to the thaumatologist's art. He crawls dungeons, the loot secondary to his greater aspirations.

Nate Bumpus - Innkeeper Extraordinaire!

Son of a soldier, Nate Bumpus was born with wandering in his blood. He tried his hand at the warring trade but found it wasn't to his liking. He left the armed service, traveled far and away, encountering people of many strange cultures and races. Often he worked in exchange for room and board, and through the years he learned the trade of an innkeeper. He found this work more to his liking: he enjoyed meeting new people, and staying put at an inn for a while, he could meet more than he could traveling. He eventually developed a pattern: wandering and seeking adventure when the weather is right, then settling with a job at a comfy inn when the months get colder.

Gar From Heroquest.

Gar

Provided portrait for
Salvatore.

A powerful barbarian who wields thrown javelins and a two-handed sword. Since he was a child, Gar had lived in his village nestled deep within the Blackwood. There, he was raised on a steady diet of weapons training, war parties, and hunting festivals. By age 16, his village was raided by a rival tribe and the blame was placed solely on him. Exiled from his home, Gar set out into the world outside of the Blackwood in hopes of finding another place to call home. But, that was over 12 years ago.

Salvatore

A mage who also specializes in rituals. More powerful than Isaac, but not as fast.

Also no source

A Musketeer and two handed swordswoman with an unusual pedigree.

Arron

A two handed swordsman. He is quick but frail, and eager to kill.

Summary

Gar is seriously wounded and the ranks are somewhat confused, suddenly monsters rally as the Watcher picks up steam, new orcs and ogres join the battle.

Arron decides to join up with the party, locating them by the sounds of their struggles, but the worst outcome possible: he encounters two Dark Vision blessed orcs in the pitch darkness. Thanks to some lucky rolls, he dispatches the first with little trouble. The other being a mage casting a 4d burning fireball, Nate hides in the doorframe, and startles the orc into burning itself and going unconscious, at which point he can rejoin the party unmolested.

Meanwhile the Watcher jokes around with the party harassing them, then teleporting out. It manages to cut off Nanako's arm [though the watcher has weak attacks, Nanako has low HP and 0 DR.] An Ogre sneaks up on the party, but Isaac is able to use a charm to put it into a hopeless mental stun it never recovers from.

After several whiffs from the great warriors and markswomen in the party, in a fluke of dice rolling, the Watcher is brought low in a single hit from Isaac's staff. [Watchers despite having very good active defenses, don't have a lot of HP and no DR.]

The battle won, the party decides to take a respite to heal. Focusing on revitalizing Salvatore, the currently most gifted healer in the group, then the party works on healing Nanako's severed arm. [after a lot of quibbling, I decide that we can use quick and dirty charms even though no charms are being made, just to move things along.] And without a fluke, Nanako's arm is re-attached. In the same manner, Gar's crippling wound to his arm is also relieved. The party ties up the orc shaman and thinks about revitalizing it and interrogating the prisoner.

After Action Report

• What went Well?
• Everyone is dismayed (in a good way) that Arron still won without trouble in a 2:1 fight in the dark.
• Isaac's mental stun charm and lucky hit were pretty cool.
• Salvatore's healing power saved lives.
• Players got through their combat turns quickly.
• What Didn't go well?
• One player left early because of various issues. Players joining after the game started and I had accounted for everyone that I thought was playing, combined with hectic conversation that made me miss a few important things he said.
• Being down a few people in the middle of combat (Nate and Grog) dramatically changed the landscape of the battlefield, for better or worse. I did account for the changing size of the party by making the fight match the size of the new party. Coincidentally, it was a fairly small change in difficulty.
• Gar made a mistake that I've also made in the past: confusing the Spear Thrower skill with the Thrown Weapon (Spear) skill. That stuff happens every once and again. I feel like a name like "Atlatl" for Spear Thrower might help with that confusion
• A lot of time was spent on quibbling RPM minutiae. Even though the formula was figured out a while ago, conversation continued on a few points, eating up a bit of game time that could have been spent better.
• Some players were confused about how wounding works on extremities and what it effectively means. Arms are an unusually easy location to hit, and easily crippled, meaning one could be easily removed from the battle through much less damage if they depend on a working weapon arm.
• Gar and Salvatore had a large amount of do nothing time. That's a difficult problem to solve though as Gar's main arm was crippled, and Salvatore was unconscious.