Re: (TFT) Action Report - DCG's "The Dark Vale"... (SPOILERS)

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

At 17:16 -0500 2/2/10, raito@raito.com wrote:
>  > Our referee was somewhat frustrated with our MO of ringing up,
> >  defending the hobbits, and letting them pick off his best fighters
> >  with aimed daggers and sha-ken.
>
> But not against armoured opponents so much (especially if you're
> wearing a helmet.)

	Against armor, the MPNS Hobbits went with their daggers, and 
flipped to AM page 21, where the Dagger Marksmanship rules for Head 
shots claim "...armor does NOT protect..." (emphasis in original).

	Changing that rule would be a good way to limit their 
effectiveness! The similar rules for "Aimed shots" on AM pp.20 do not 
exclude the protection of Armor, so that case is already covered.


At 17:16 -0500 2/2/10, PvK wrote:
> Who thinks the Shadow and Wall spells are useless?

	Not *me*! See below, if you wish.

At 17:16 -0500 2/2/10, Jay wrote:
> Apply this to a unit of Indigos.

	I think one of the reasons for this party's success was its 
diversity. Political correctness aside, we had the right counter for 
almost any challenge. A unit of Indigos would be fun in some 
contexts, but maybe not as effective as what we had.

At 17:16 -0500 2/2/10, Jay wrote:
> I have to ask here, ever read the book?
	We own it. It's the only case I can think of where the movie 
and the book are much different, and I can't decide which is better 
(and of course, the screenwriter was the same as the author, so I 
can't decide based on "authenticity").

At 17:16 -0500 2/2/10, Jay wrote:
> This one is only a loophole if the GM allows MPNS Hobbits outta thin air.
	We had some discussion about this. But as it's a "canned 
adventure", the Referee could face quite a lot of push-back from the 
players for imposing restrictions not in the rules.

At 17:16 -0500 2/2/10, Jay wrote:
> I wouldn't want you to reveal a bunch about the adventure as a whole, but
> I'd be real curious to hear about one of your more memorable battles...


		********** SPOILERS BELOW **************


Okay, I'll try to paint my favorite three vignettes.

	In one fight, we were facing two ST:30 skeleton warriors, one 
of which was taken down by *two* shots from our longbow archer (!). 
First shot, as the skeleton charged, the elf rolled triple-damage, 
and a natural 6 -> 24 point damage roll. He concentrated on the other 
skeleton warrior while the first one got back to his feet, then came 
back and polished him off with a double-damage, natural 6 damage roll 
-> 16 point hit. (The referee allowed missiles to be effective 
against these skeletons.)
	I suggested the elf change his name to "Bard" and paint all 
his arrows black. Meantime, I'm standing *behind* him any time he 
draws a bow...



	In our one fiasco battle, it was a good plan but we didn't 
execute very well and "Plan B" was mainly to get really lucky on the 
next few die rolls. Again, we were facing two very strong opponents. 
One crew went right, including Fizzick for a dive into HTH, and 
several other characters to slowly beat up the wrestling skeleton. 
The crew on the left included Indigo, an MPNS hobbit, an archer, and 
a wizard, none of whom could hope to stand up to that skeleton in a 
fair slugging match, nor really in HTH. The little hobbit, on my 
(bad) advice, tried to tackle the skeleton HTH by coming in from 
behind, to immobilize and disarm him to protect the other characters. 
But the skeleton rolled a 5 and the hobbit bounced. The skeleton 
turned on the hobbit and Things were Looking Bleak, but Indigo, 
engaged but planning to back off with his higher adjDX, instead stood 
his ground beside the hobbit, and finished off the skeleton with a 
double-damage hit, just before he would have flattened the helpless 
hobbit. The hobbit was *most* grateful.



	Finally, the ultimate battle involved an overwhelmingly large 
number of opponents storming toward us down a 3-hex wide tunnel. Each 
was carrying a broadsword, wearing chainmail, and, as we later 
discovered, acting at adjDX 10. We only had to hold out for a certain 
number of turns, but in terms of sheer front-line battle strength, I 
thought we were in pretty deep trouble at first.
	We lined up across the tunnel, Indigo on the right calmly 
saying, "...prepare to die.", an archer changed-weapons to a spear on 
the left, and Fizzick planted himself in the middle, proclaiming, 
"The Dread Pirate Roberts leaves NO SURVIVORS! I am here. My men are 
here. But soon, *you* will not be here! *NO SURVIVORS*!"

	... aand, our IQ-14 Wizard stood in the back.

	Her opening sally was an illusion of a 4-hex wall, blocking 
the tunnel completely, but leaving loopholes for the remaining archer 
and the MPNS hobbits. The opponents surged against the wall, and 
started to be stung by projectiles zipping through the loopholes. 
Next turn, the Wizard lit a 7-hex fire on the opponents' side of the 
wall. The opponents did a hasty about-face and fell back 2 hexes. 
Next turn, while the opponents gathered their wits and disbelieved 
the wall (successfully), the wizard cast Slippery Floor into the fire 
hexes, as the front three stepped forward into the now-vacant wall 
hexes.
	The bad guys were out of time, in so many ways. Charging 
across the fire, tripping and falling on their comrades' bodies or 
simply because they had to make 2 or 3 adjDX 10 rolls on the Slippery 
Floor, toasted and at adjDX penalties even when they did reach the 
front three, and then to face the spear, the flashing six-fingered 
sword, or the mighty maul of Fizzick, still chanting "NO SURVIVORS!" 
- it was gruesome. The bodies piled high as the flames snapped and 
crackled. It was around 0400 actual clock time, so after several 
turns, the referee actually gave up before the turn limit, because it 
was crystal clear our defenses were more than adequate to the task at 
hand.

	Thanks, Ozymandias (the wizard, whose player is reading)!

--
						- Mark     210-379-4635
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Asteroids headed toward planets
inhabited by beings that don't have
technology adequate to stop them:

				Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"