Homebrew RPG Session Notes

8/29/20

First game with new group. Lots of changes to rules updates.  Noticed a couple spells I wrote needed nerfing and buffing. Did that before the session.

Players rolled up new characters while I explained the system and the world: post-apocalyptic, 1000 years after the collapse, a magic-powered society fell apart under the weight of its own complexity. It was hard to explain the difference between build points and skill points. It takes me a while to fund the proper words to explain things and I don’t know what’s not obvious. Two players selected pre-fabs I rolled up before the session.

Then the game began. I introduced the main city and the surrounding topography and explained they were adventurers who want to make money scavenging the wilderness for old artifacts and treasure. I described a giant mountain visible from miles and miles away and one player jumped on the idea. Another player asked around for jobs and found a group of artificer vat-farmers who heard a rumor from a scavenger that there were vats in a cave past the cataracts down the river. The vat farmers loaned the players a wagon pulled by Golden Axe steads and off they went. The fighter (who was driving in real life and therefore playing a prefab) was able to secure this loan on the basis of his reputation, having completed his apprenticeship to his sword master. They purchased flaming oil as well.

In the second say the players saw a group of poisonous snakes in a river and safely avoided them.

They navigated the bluffs near the cataracts, followed the river some more, and got to the cave. Nearby they camouflaged the wagon with reeds and approached the cave. They camped out and entered the cave on the fourth day of travel.

They entered a room with two living metals eating a destroyed psi-mech guardian. There were signs of battle and also living quarters. They lured the living metals out with torches (they are attracted to warmth) and eventually found their way to the chamber with the sentient fungi, who had the vats they were looking for. One player inspected the fungi and observed (with a great nature knowledge roll) that they are poisonous, have ranged attacks, and are slow. Along the way they found a note alluding to another location, 50 gp in a sack, and a broken down, wall-mounted control panel with plenty of good scrap to take.

After tense negotiations with the fungi they agreed to return with four lizard men bodies in exchange for 2 vats. We used this as an opportunity to establish that one of the players has a tribal lizardman connection named Nicholas, who is an artist. (I will name this Lizardman "N'claws." He will be a renowned rock stacker among his own.)

On their way out the players salvaged what scrap they could from the wall-mounted control device. Near the exit, the two living metals had left (actually they were successfully camouflaged into the psi-mech guardian, but they learned not to fear this group of adventurers) and the players retrieved a random artifact found in the chest cavity of the fallen psi-mech warrior. It was a phosphorescent… entropy… locator. I do love that random chart I made! (When repaired, glows when there is a source of entropy nearby.)

So far the players correctly guessed the abilities of the monsters they were up against. The brightly colored snakes were, in fact, poisonous, the living metals were vulnerable to acid, but little else, and the fungi totally outclassed them. It was great having players who avoided fights when they thought they were outclassed. (Which they were throughout this session.)

The two characters with scavenging earned their XP as soon as they made in back to their wagon, which counts as a safe camp, more-or-less.

Players:

Fighter (pure combat) – was driving !!!

Ranger (combat and scavenging)

Scout (roguery, combat, and scavenging -who dipped out before the action began, so I’m saying he wasn’t there)

Biomancer-fighter-scavenger (Bougalais)

Elementalist-fighter

A good mix of the game’s capabilities, but no one has selected an artificer yet.

Treasure: 50 gp in a sack, random artifact worth 400 gp, scrap worth 1000 gp.

XP (for scavengers only): 263 XP to the ranger and Bougalais. (This means 263 XP each to the remaining two players when they return to civilization.)

Arrangements:

-borrowing a wagon and animals from the vat-farmers on the fighter’s honor and reputation, to return the goods

-Sentient fungi will trade 2 vats for 4 lizardmen bodies

Established NPCs:

-Vat farmers

-The fighter’s sword master

-N’claws, the lizardman tribal chief who stacks rocks

-Some group of settlers that secured a place “at the edge of the jungle”

Time passed: 4 days. Next session begins around noon of the 4^th day.