[Imp Game]The Bunny King in the Sky and Jeff Foxworthy

[daMoose_Neo]

The shortest Imp Game yet!
Played an hour and twenty minutes, including character generation for a set of three Imps. Completed objective and two of three Imps reasonably assumed dead. And Jeff Foxworthy.

Players were-
Myself, as always ^_^
Jon Ross, obsessive Final Twilight fan/vet, D&D 3.0 player
Lucas, Jon's friend and Twilight vet as well, D&D 3.0 player

Tonight was weekly Twilight night, cept not many peeps showed. Ran a couple games of Twilight and it was just the three of us and an hour or so to kill. Jon had scoped out IG before, and was stoked to try it out, so we did.
I will say after the last session I was a little spoiled. The higher-brow chuckles were a little more enjoyable than the below-the-waist bloodfest that awaited me tonight...

Characters to come out of this (regret not having character cards):

- Smergle, my Imp, a Smart Imp who could pull stuff out of thin air, who was nearsighted, brilliant-but-misunderstood, and sniffed others butts. I was afraid of idiots and something else.
- Cronus, Jon's Imp, a Devious Imp who was Gothic, loved his work, and loved plants. He was afraid of all things cute and one other, and had the ability of Runic Alchemy (ala "Full Metal Alchemist" anime).
- Mirkus, Lucas' Imp, a Devious Imp as well who was 1/2 Rabbit, Furry (? Two seemed to overlap in my mind) and Simple Minded. He was afraid of bright things and I honestly don't think he was assigned a second fear. His special ability was that of Summoning Devil Bunny friends.

Lucas provided the adventure based on his Imp - we were to find and assassinate the Bunny Chief and have Mirkus take his place as ruler of the bunnies so the Master could command the hordes of carnivorous bunnies.

Being D&D 3.0 players, I ran into a number of initial stumbling blocks I seem to run into. "No, there are no distances limiting your ability. No there is no specific ritual. No there are no modifiers for X." Seems every CRPG or D&D group I play with runs into this, an instant need to start applying modifier after modifier.

This game was a GP FRENZY. First time using poker chips for Guts Points (GP) which REALLY made life easier and I think added to the frenzy - "OOH! MORE CHIPS!" Little of that touch/feel physical reward as opposed to "Okay, add a couple points to your card."

Anywho, standing outside the Master's fortress just trying to figure out what the frell we're doing and we end up with half a dozen rolls. Apperently (Knowing little about FMA) the Alchemy ability being mimiced allowed for the caster/user to do a number of things, so it functioned ala my "Pull stuff out of thin air" except with some hand gestures, cool sounds and excitement, so, what ever works.

Being Lucas introduced the adventure, we let him frame up most of the details surrounding the Bunny Kingdom. An access point was located at the heart of a forest to the south, an elevator that lead to the Forest in the Clouds. There, we had to find the secret entrance and the bridge made of old Jell-O (should have warned parts are downright silly).
Being it was day, Lucas couldn't travel without something, so the two of us (Jon and I) rolled to see who could concoct some kind of cover- Jon won out with a hoodie. Trying to use his alchemy to dig a tunnel twice, he blows the first roll and blasts a hole through the Master's bathroom and then digs a hole straight down, at the bottom of which was a custard pie (?). Lucas and I end up falling in to get the pie and can't get out, at which time Jon conjures up a ladder...and decides it goes straight up to the clouds. So, Lucas and I climb out and Jon conjures up a pair of winged boots for himself.
Get up into the tree tops of the forest in the clouds and we start poking around and a variety of fun things happen. In a couple of botched rolls that cleaned Lucas out of points and left Jon with a huge freakin stack of chips we ended up with a forest made of gum, Jon stuck to a tree after humping it (Loves plants, gee, didn't see that coming) before it became gum, and the bunny guards being eaten alive by a rabid rodent I pulled out of thin air looking for Peanut butter.
Jon ended up upsetting Lucas in some attempt to kill his bunny breathren and tried to land him in hot water (Jon didn't need it). After freeing him from the gum, Jon began falling to his doom with a pack of rabid carnivorous rabbits below waiting to eat him. What followed was an item fest of Loony-Tunes proportions, as we're pulling things out left and right trying to save him (or Lucas trying to doom him). Finally, a HIGH point roll I manage with the statement "EVERYTHING falls on the carnivorous rabbits"- including two large lead blocks, a skeleton, a water pistol and Jon. The order they fell that I narrated favored Jon's survival, as the two blocks squished a large segment of the bunnies while the skeleton was immeditly besieged by the rabbits, allowing Jon to try and escape.
Meanwhile, back in the trees, Lucas goes looking for a secret stash of items (as his Imp grew up there, being half rabbit and all) and finds the Invincible Skull of Joshkrah or somesuch. Donning it, he is possessed by the spirt of Jeff Foxworthy and the really bad red neck jokes start running.
Jon and Lucas' rivalry continues and Jon's winged boots are still stuck with gum and he sticks his hands to his boots while trying to unstick them, rolling back into the horde of rabbits. Again, the point pool is incredibly large (10 points I think?) and I manage a roll saving Jon as well as Lucas, who had fallen out of the trees, pulling them up with a grapling hook.

Few more rolls: I discover the entrance to the Bunny Fortress, Jon turns himself into strawberry jam, and Lucas starts eating him. Joing my comrades once more, I take advantage of another high point pool and whip out a Transmute Jelly-to-Imp potion, saving Jon, and a catapault a moment later.
Lucas realizes the area is familiar and with a roll remembers the area, and that an alternate side entrance is just around the corner. Rounding that corner, we're confronted with another rabbit...just so happens to be this Chief we're looking for who ALSO happens to be a friend of Lucas' Imp. So, they start chatting about the old days and Jon tries firing up a couple of disintigrate spells, blowing several and striking down the Chief's wife Queenie, starting the battle anew.
Assaulted once more with carnivorous rabbits, more rolls ensue- the objectives are kept fairly narrow, as we want to preserve the carnivorous bunny populace for the Master to control, but survival would be nice. Jon finally gets a spell off and kills the Chief, but according to Bunny law, he who kills the chief becomes chief. Mirkus is going to kill Cronus when me, still arguing with the catapault, finally get it to fire, plowing into Cronus, making everyone think he's dead. Accepting that since Mirkus must lead the bunnies, I let him kill me but Jon won't let go and tries to come to, blowing himself up with his alchemy, resulting in a part of his mind trapped in Mirkus', engaged in a fisticuffs with Jeff Foxworthy, who wins, of course.
Game ended with Cronus and Smergle presumably dead and Mirkus worshipped by the carnivorous bunnies.

Thoughts/Impressions: Changes to the system- el perfecto. Because of the number of rolls being made I skipped the bonus on abilities, treated them just like normal rolls.
Points FLEW across the table. At one point, we had EACH run out of points, but with a couple rolls were right back in the mix, our ability to bid up the rolls was hampered only slightly. A few well placed choices and we each had 20+ points too, so things worked.
As I mentioned earlier, I saw a lot more point useage than before, I don't know exactly what it was, but I'm thinking the poker chips did add a little to it. So much cooler to take a pile of chips sitting in the center of the table than to add points to a tally sheet. The glee with which they snatched up their winnings told me that ^_^
Gaming with these guys was different. They were quite a bit younger (HS freshmen where as I'm college junior), players of a regular Twilight TCG group I manage, but seemed really stoked about the Imp Game.
The D&D background is typical of the folks who've tested this, IF they have any RP background at all. Took Jon a bit at the start to grasp the concept "No, there are no real limitations or rules. Make the roll and you make the outcome." Finally got him away from the whole concept of NEEDING to exactly lay out his action (rune for his alchemy) and he started whipping the most points around early.
There were a LOT of rolls in this session compared to others. I credit the streamlined roll, the poker chips, and some insanity on the item-generation going on for it, but it works. Got to see and experiance first hand what happens when someone runs out of points and you know what? Its not so bad with an active group. Wait for a heavy roll, then cash in ^_^
All in all, not a bad session. Not at all ^_^

[Tobias]

Sounds good - and looking from here, the humor isn't as low in the gutter as it has been. This reads like fun play, to me. :)

[daMoose_Neo]

Part of that was by design.
I had gotten permission from the manager of the local WalMart to have a weekly game night at the store's little restaurant/snack bar section. Since they close early (7 or 8), he was cool with that, so we were playing in a public place where I was able to be simply by the good graces of the boss.
The gutter humor simply wasn't as memorable this time, sparce really, and I sidestepped by butt-sniffing trait when ever I could.

I was just impressed with the mechanics, though I need to look back and institute some kind of order- a few rolls almost ran right over each other. Final Draft will have the DM with a little more in game authority I think to manage minor scuffs like two players at the same time "I want to roll for that!"