Note:
Developmental Notes are concepts and comments that arise while play-testing and developing the rules for FATE of Stolvorden. If you are interested in little details about how the game rules are adapted, applied, expanded and condensed, these are the posts for you. If on the other hand, your interest is in following the story of the characters and their adventures, you may ignore this post and go on to the session by session summaries.
In our last session, I presented the players with a physical conflict in the form of a battle with a monster. The monster stats are not to be revealed now, since the players are not familiar with this beast. Absent any aspects or story reasons, there is no reason for the characters to be familiar with this either, although we can expect that they will be VERY familiar with them in the future.
The conflict was resolved almost immediately in favor of the characters. There was one magical ability used to immobilize the creature temporarily and another character shot at it with a bow. As presented in the story, a character was frustrated that he didn't even had a chance to do anything. This was a direct reflection of player frustration. "What? I didn't get to do anything!" He complained before deciding to mutilate the already dead body with his sword.
My impression of this 'battle', if we can call it that, and of the previous conflicts the party has encountered before, is that they have been perhaps too easy. I am thinking here of the social combat with the young bandits and the soldiers in the various barricades, as well as the distraction of the weapons dealer while stealing 'grandpa's knife'.
Player frustration over the quickness of combat may be related to expectations created by other role-playing games, including computer ones, where battles last long and everyone gets a chance to attack the monster, heal each other, use items etcetera. If we consider realism, though, it is clear that an arrow to the neck of an unarmored foe can and would usually be lethal. That said, if the characters can go around the world, one-shooting every enemy, the game itself will become less challenging.
The physical combat portion was interesting for me. The creative use of elementalism was fun, and I expect that the Elementalist Player will make more creative use of her character's powers once she continues to learn what she can do. I think the fact that magic powers are not too powerful by themselves (she can't cast a meteor on her enemies, for example) With creative use, they can be very effective. This works perfectly well with the atmosphere I want to create for Stolvorden.
As far as the conflicts being too easy, there are a couple of things that I have to keep in mind:
- The experience (power) level of the characters, and
- The number of enemies.
As far as the power of the characters, the thing to keep in mind is that player characters in s FATE-based game don't begin the game as "level 1" hero wannabes like in most other systems, but they are relatively experienced, battle-tested individuals. Perhaps my own background in other systems has to be considered as well as that of the players, when we talk about the feeling of the combat being "too short".
It may be good to think also of realism (or what can be termed realism in a fantasy setting). When one reads fantasy, a couple of things are apparent. First, the characters don't usually go around killing everyone in sight, but when battles occur, heroes usually dispatch most common foes with very few hits. This of course, changes when facing the 'boss battle', which is usually longer and requires more resources to finish. This is the reason common enemies usually rely on numbers to accomplish their battle goals, and this brings me to the second point.
Common enemies usually outnumber the main characters in fiction. For this introductory adventure (I told the players it was the proverbial tutorial at the beginning of most computer rpg) I decided to present a single enemy. Even though the enemy was tougher than the characters, that strength could not be brought to bear when the characters used their abilities to quickly neutralize it. In a more dramatic scene, a single creature might not have ventured into the camp, but would have brought extra "baddies" to overpower the characters. This may have added more excitement to the fight, as no matter what the character did, or how easy they dispatched individual monsters, there would be some, at least one, that would manage to take a shot at them.
During the next few sessions, I will keep in mind that these characters are not 'level 1' and will experiment with the power level and the number of the enemies, as well as with more complications to other conflicts.
We'll see what the next session brings...
On the road, Xinnian Empire, 19 of Starlight.
The group travelled mostly without interruption from the City of Moller to the outskirts of the Great City of Xin, where they were stopped by the military. These were not ragtag militia-men, like those they had encountered before, but highly trained and adequately equipped soldiers.
"We should be very careful around these men," suggested Kishara, who always had always mistrusted men, particularly armed men, and even more particularly when they were in large groups.
The companions were interrogated as to their reason fro travel and for carrying weapons and they responded with their usual story about being afraid of the barbarians. This time, Mamba decided to embellish his story a little and said that he was going to visit his in-laws in a northern city.
The group decide to tell the soldiers that they were not entering the city itself, but continuing their trip north. This seemed to alleviate the soldier's concerns and they allowed them to proceed, warning them about the rumors that a group of young bandits had brought about large armies of barbarians headed to the Great City itself. Black Mamba and Daktari exchanged a meaningful glance at that, since they knew very well who the young bandits were.
The group bordered the northwestern city walls up until they met the road again. A little farther down, they encountered another battalion blocking the road. The soldiers detained them little, warning them not to leave the city, but eventually allowing them to do their will nevertheless.
Just before the group left, a petty officer approached Persephone and told her she looked familiar. "Where have I seen you before?"
"I don't know," responded Persephone, getting a little nervous.
The man scratched his unshaven face. "You look like someone I went to military academy with," he said. "Are you a soldier?"
Mamba jumped into the conversation and placed his arm on Persephone's shoulder. "I think you are confused," he told the soldier. "My girl has never been in the military, Have you?"
"No," mumbled Persephone almost inaudibly.
The soldier seemed puzzled, but he didn't pursue the subject any further. The rest of the group decided that it was time to leave before things got interesting and walked away from the scene.
Judging by the map, the group decided to walk all day and stop to rest half way to their chosen destination, which was the site of the most recent battle between the Xinnians and the Barbarians.
That night, they camped by the river, away from the road. All were exhausted and needed the rest. They setup guards, ate bread and after watering the horses, tied them under the canopy of a large tree where they could feed and rest. They decided on guard duty and went to sleep.
It was Kishara's turn to keep watch when the beast appeared.
It was a huge humanoid creature, maybe 8 or 9 feet of muscle and sinew with the head of a Jackal. It was armed with a simple spear, but it's sharp claws and fangs made the spear seem almost useless.
Kishara was surprised by the arrival of the beast and did not react in time to avoid being attacked by it. Before she could react, the monster had grabbed her and was covering her mouth. Kishara opened her eyes wide, aware that her comrades were all asleep in the tent and that she had no way of telling them. She only had a few instants to think.
While the monster dragged her, she managed to touch the ground and attempted to use her elementalist abilities to alter the soil. As she was being dragged and under stress, she had a hard time concentrating to produce a good effect, but managed to alter a small portion of soil into a material soft enough for the clawed feet of the beast to sink in it.
This would not have been enough to stop the creature or make it stumble, but for the fact that immediately after, she turned the soil into a solid, heavy mass that encased the monster's claws and immobilized him. With a great roar, the monster tried to free his feet from the cemented clay. Kishara used the momentary hesitation to drop to the ground and roll away from the monster, at the same time drawing the small dagger she kept hidden under her sleeve.
The sudden roar awakened the companions. Daktari and Persephone awakened first, but Mamba was somewhat lethargic and took a bit longer to realize what was happening. By the time he noticed there was an attack, Persephone was out of the tent, bow in the ready. Persephone shot an arrow at the monster as it was about to throw his spear at Kishara. The arrow flew certain and hit the creature on the back of the neck, disturbing the shot and making it miss.
Before long, the monster lay dead in a pool of its own blood and Black Mamba, totally disgruntled because he had not had a chance to fight cleaved the body with his sword in a fit of rage.
"Being an Elementalist is not that bad," said Daktari after checking the situation out.
"No," responded Kishara, proud that someone had finally recognized her skills. "It doesn't"
On the road, Xinnian Empire, 20 of Starlight.
That morning, the group resumed their travel North and for the first time they crossed paths with refugees from the previous battles. They spoke to a few of them, shared bread and send them on their way to the Great City of Xin. During these encounters, they learned of the atrocities the barbarians had done to the cities and renewed their determination to do whatever they could to stop these evil men from achieving whatever objective they planned to.
With renewed determination, they traveled until they reached the battle site. It was dark when they arrived and Kishara was the only one who could see in the dark, so they decided to make camp outside of the area on order to examine the area in the morning.
After some discussion, the group decided to camp well away from he road, and started to walk towards the forest that was visible towards the East. Their intention was to make camp among the trees to avoid the road and any possible enemies. The birds sounded in the distance and others responded from nearby.
Daktari gasped as an arrow flew out of the darkness and stuck itself to the ground between his legs. It was a delicate feathered arrow, that both Kishara and Persephone immediately recognized as of Arani craftsmanship.
"This is a warning shot," said Kishara pulling the arrow from the ground, "The Arani archers never miss unless they mean to".
A thin strip of parchment was wrapped around the shaft of the arrow. Kishara unrolled it carefully and noticed that a message was written in it.
Get out of our lands and we will let you live. K.
"Who is 'K.'?" asked Black Mamba.
"I don't know," responded Kishara puzzled at the message.
"It's you, Kish," said Daktari merrily. "You have to teach me how you do it..."
"We have to get away from here," said mamba shaking his head at his friend.
The group walked away from the forest, back to the road and set camp near the battle area.
The group had the last of their bread and set camp by the road. They just had to be careful and stay alert for any danger. Now it was a matter of waiting for the morning light to investigate the site for clues.
