Dwimmermount Playtest Using Ambition & Avarice
I've been really bad at getting follow-up thoughts on the adventure I ran at the convention last weekend, so I'm just going to post what I have:
Ambition & Avarice by Greg Christopher
1) Combat was too easy. This was my fault. I maxed out the PC HPs, but I left the HP of the creatures in the adventure at what they were rolled. We had a 22 HP orc ranger fighting 1 HP recently spawned orcs. To be fair, all the opponents should have been at max HP as well. Now, this isn't to say that people didn't get injured. We did have injuries, and we did need healing. I'll talk about that in the next point.
2) The Cultist changes things. Once the party saw what the Cultist could do, they suddenly wanted to knock their opponents out instead of killing them. We had a hobgoblin player trying to knock orcs out with the flat of his axe blade. A couple other players told me they were specifically trying to hit with the pommels of their swords.These players wanted their opponents taken alive...so the Cultist could sacrifice them.
3) The rules are straightforward. Only one person at the table admitted to downloading and reading the A&A rules I linked on the convention website before we played. She stated the rules were both straightforward and self-contained, meaning she didn't have to flip back and forth from section to section to get a clear grasp of the rules (ie "You can subdue and opponent. Turn to chapter 4, section 3 on wrestling").
4) There are different classing, making you try different things. The same person as above says she "always plays a fighter." Well, she couldn't do that in A&A. She had to play a Knight, or a Ranger, or the Savage she ended up with.
5) Everyone would play the system again. I asked specifically, not about the adventure, not about running under me, but about the system. I was told they would play the system again, even if someone different was running it.
Dwimmermount by James Maliszewski
Ambition & Avarice by Greg Christopher
1) Combat was too easy. This was my fault. I maxed out the PC HPs, but I left the HP of the creatures in the adventure at what they were rolled. We had a 22 HP orc ranger fighting 1 HP recently spawned orcs. To be fair, all the opponents should have been at max HP as well. Now, this isn't to say that people didn't get injured. We did have injuries, and we did need healing. I'll talk about that in the next point.
2) The Cultist changes things. Once the party saw what the Cultist could do, they suddenly wanted to knock their opponents out instead of killing them. We had a hobgoblin player trying to knock orcs out with the flat of his axe blade. A couple other players told me they were specifically trying to hit with the pommels of their swords.These players wanted their opponents taken alive...so the Cultist could sacrifice them.
3) The rules are straightforward. Only one person at the table admitted to downloading and reading the A&A rules I linked on the convention website before we played. She stated the rules were both straightforward and self-contained, meaning she didn't have to flip back and forth from section to section to get a clear grasp of the rules (ie "You can subdue and opponent. Turn to chapter 4, section 3 on wrestling").
4) There are different classing, making you try different things. The same person as above says she "always plays a fighter." Well, she couldn't do that in A&A. She had to play a Knight, or a Ranger, or the Savage she ended up with.
5) Everyone would play the system again. I asked specifically, not about the adventure, not about running under me, but about the system. I was told they would play the system again, even if someone different was running it.
1) Liked the history of the dwarves. Dwimmermount dwarves are carved out of stone as sort of the father's life work. When they die, dwarves turn back into stone. They can be brought back to life with a Stone to Flesh spell. We didn't have any of those.
2) Would gladly play again. There was enough there, and the hint of more to come. I actually printed up a page of the history that could be found in the library, blacking out some partial lines due to age and wear of the parchment. This got them interested more in the Thulian Empire and Turms Termax.
3) I asked one yes/no question. Everything else above was volunteered in an open-ended what did you like/not like about the game. The question was Was there enough to keep your attention? The answers were Yes. I was afraid, after reading some other assessments of level 1, that the party might get bored. I even prepped my copy of the map by highlighting encounters in red and traps in blue. There was plenty of red and blue on the map.
2) Would gladly play again. There was enough there, and the hint of more to come. I actually printed up a page of the history that could be found in the library, blacking out some partial lines due to age and wear of the parchment. This got them interested more in the Thulian Empire and Turms Termax.
3) I asked one yes/no question. Everything else above was volunteered in an open-ended what did you like/not like about the game. The question was Was there enough to keep your attention? The answers were Yes. I was afraid, after reading some other assessments of level 1, that the party might get bored. I even prepped my copy of the map by highlighting encounters in red and traps in blue. There was plenty of red and blue on the map.