[Battleaxe] Fires of Talisman Gate

[Doug Woolsey]

The Fire of Talisman Gate is a campaign I started on 8-5-05. The game is scheduled to run for three weeks and will be played five nights a week for 4-6 hours each session. There are three players and one GM using the new 1.7 patch for the Battleaxe RPG.

About the game :
(note that the following describes four game sessions each lasting about five hours)

Emily is playing a Mage Woodlander and chose fire magic as her school, Alex is playing a human Warrior and chose swords as his favored melee weapon, and Michelle is playing a Maggodsteel Orc Ranger and chose bows as her favored ranged weapon. I've roleplayed extensively with Emily and Alex. Although I've never roleplayed with Michelle she is a veteran AD&D, Rifts, and Palladium player.

The game is set in the Age of the Unconquerable in the land known as Talisman Gate. The premise of the adventure is that a forest fire is ravaging Darkwyrm Forest and has pushed the three heroes southward out of the forest. They are among a group of refugees heading to a fortified inn called the Crimson Pole. Here, they meet a group of dwarves looking for a few heroes to help them avenge the loss of their comrades who were killed or captured by trolls. The three agree to help the dwarves (the gold helped) and they set out with them the next morning. They begin by traveling back toward the raging forest fire stopping periodically to inspect ruins. The dwarves begin to act strangely and start conducting secret expeditions into the depths of these ruins. The dwarves are much more powerful than our heroes as proven a day earlier during a massive goblin (actually koblins, but the heroes don't yet understand the [unpublished] goblin hierarchy of koblin, goblin, and hobgoblin) attack and the players hesitate to challenge or question the dwarves.

A day later the group stops at another set of these ruins only to discover evidence that the missing dwarves had gone into them. It is here that a large group of gnolls (fleeing the fire and pillaging as they go) falls on the group and forces them all into the ruins.  For the dwarves this is near sacrilege, but the group descends into an otherworldly series of stone tunnels that appear to be part of a huge underground machine. The passages are protected by fortified doors and magic locks and the characters are asked to divert their eyes a few times. They, of course, take a peek, and see chambers filled with liquid surrounded by tubes and tanks, valves and pipes.
It turns out that the dwarves have discovered something very wrong is happening in the underground and they need the PCs to take a message to their lord at Darkwyrm Keep. They give the group a message and tell them to make haste. The three are taken to a passage that will lead them out and are told to stay to the right at all times. "Don't go left!" the dwarves stress, but, as expected, the characters all go left.
It is at this point that Alex does the unexpected and his character falls down a long drainage tunnel he was poking around in. The group is split up and they don't know for sure how to get out of the underground.  The reverse way has been sealed and the dwarves are long gone.

Emily accidentally trips a magic trap which opens a door leading to a watery lair deep in the complex. Emily's elf and Michelle's orc investigate only to discover a Dark Salamander. Both manage to save against its poisonous breath but, strangely, they decide to attack the beast. The salamander nearly eats the elf, managing to swallow the mage to her chest before a strike by the orc causes the beast to cough her back up. It is only by the grace of bad rolls for the salamander's attack that the two escape.

Meanwhile, Alex's warrior finds himself near a strange underground river that is occupied by koblins. He manages to steal a boat (and some loot!) and sails out of the mountain to the safety of the hills on the eastern side.

The elf and the human also find the river and, after battling more koblins, they find a boat and sail to safety.

The group now finds itself down-river from their objective, off -course by nearly 250 miles, and on foot. The weather has turned and the rain is hampering their travel. To make matters worse, they are traveling through lands owned by Duke Innar, a ruthless man known for his brutal punishment of criminals, especially practitioners of dark magic. The duke's knights scour the lands seeking out dark wizards and those in league with them. So far, the group has managed to skirt their patrols but it is only a matter of time before the duke's fanatics and our heroes meet....

About the players:
Emily is playing a Mage Woodlander. She started casting a very basic spell she made up that causes moving objects to freeze motion. She's used it to stop attackers many times. After a few hours of play she'd successfully recorded a healing spell and a couple of offensive fire spells. Emily has a tendency to roll very well and has already become a formidable albeit low-power Mage.  After a couple of gaming sessions her Imagination reached 30 and she chose to specialize.  She specialized as a Summoner. This gave her the ability to use her Imagination modifier (Imagination Points) for summoning in addition to the school of fire magic she'd already chosen. She summoned a wolf right away. The pet proved valuable in battle many times although she eventually decided to banish it and summon a horse in its place.

Michelle's orc required a bit more finagling to work into the game than either the elf or the human character. Orcs are a part of everyday life for most humans and elves, but Michelle's playing a big, mean Maggodsteel orc and looks and acts a bit differently than the smaller Blackstitch orcs of the north. This character had been pursuing a vampire lord that had crossed the Dragonback Sea. The vampire had stolen a very important artifact from the orc's tribe, one that kept the water there pure and immune from spells or charms. As a result, the water was tainted and the orc's tribe was forced to flee to the city of Forge Bunker. It is a matter of honor for Michelle's orc to recover the artifact and to kill the vampire lord. The chase led the orc to the north and into the Sawbone Mountains where the forest fire raged. It was here that the orc lost the vampire lord's trail and was forced to flee southward away from the fire. For the orc, the dwarven quest and the fire are secondary to his desire to find the vampire lord. The orc's quest serves as the backbone for the game and drives the party always onward. 

So far, Michelle's character has been the most capable. She allocated her points with greater foresight during character creation and managed to use her attribute scores to bring her Ranger to life. She specialized right off the bat and chose a Hunter. This gave her a number of important abilities that combined with her natural (enhanced) sense of smell to create a character with the valuable ability to provide advance warning or sniff out potential threats.

Alex is playing a human Warrior. His attributes are all rather low and is advancement has been slow-going. His Vigor hasn't reached 30 yet so he hasn't specialized, but he's very much looking forward to doing so. Alex is one of those players who loves to play but is always a bit embarrassed each time we start. He plays conservatively and almost always chooses to run or hide from a fight, but then will occasionally do something very bold, and sometimes, dangerous. He constantly makes strange moral choices and watching his evolution as a player is almost as fun as watching his character choose between the life of a simple man and the life of a fantasy hero.

Early Conclusions:
All three players have constantly told me that they enjoy the "video-game" feel of BRPG. This is good news as we've tried to focus the recent system changes on streamlining combat and making BRPG a bit more mainstream with regard to professional choices and advancement.

All three thoroughly enjoy the professional system and say that it makes characters more special. Earlier versions of BRPG suffered from "stale character syndrome" where players felt that there were too many options and the open-ended nature of the professional scheme made for bland characters. If there is one thing I have learned from BRPG is that players love options but they also love structure.

No one seems to mind the new restrictions placed on who can use magic and how it is used. Again, this comes back to the "players want structure" thought. BRPG was so open-ended in terms of what a character could do with magic that its presence became mundane. With the new professional specializations and some of the changes to the application of a character's Imagination modifier this problem seems to vanish.

All three players like the new award point pool system, although the new attribute point cost requirements seemed to confuse everyone. After a couple of minor modifications everyone seemed pleased. Now, when points are awarded, they are placed in a pool. They can be spent or saved and all three players seem to enjoy accumulating the points and planning how they will be applied. This is especially fun to see considering the new award point system requires more award points per attribute or skill point than previous versions of the system.

This is my first time posting an AP thread. I would welcome any questions or comments you may have.

Thanks,
-- Doug

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Koblins! I love that.

Hmm... what to say? It sounds like you had a very good, functional experience. It makes me want to give Battleaxe a try, and I didn't beforehand, so that's good.

Your dwarves cracked me up too. Is it me, or was there the impression that they asked the characters to take a message because they got scared the characters would get too interested in their weird-o underground machine. I definitely got the "Hey, ignore that. Oh, I have this thing you can do. Pay no attention to the world-ending dwarf machine." vibe.

I find your character creation notes interesting. I'm going to read Battleaxe now so I get it better, but why is Alex's character running behind on development? And why is he embarassed before a game?

[Adam Dray]

Welcome to the Forge, Doug!

You can play 20 hours in a week? Daa-yamn. Are you playing face-to-face, by post, by IRC, or what? How old is your play group?

Half of your post is a summary of in-game events. That's not terribly useful to most of us when it's just about what the characters did and the characters didn't do much that they couldn't do in, say, D&D or GURPS Fantasy. Don't feel bad; lots of people do that, and I've done it myself. The real magic is in what the players did while those imaginary events were happening. You get to some of that in the second half of your post but even that is more talking about a list of events that occurred (this time in the real world) but not why those things happened, why the players made those choices, or what impact the choices had on you or other players. Try to focus your report on how the actual play referenced the game design and we'll have more to talk about. Your game sounds like it was a lot of fun and I'd like to understand better how the game design contributed to that fun!  Essentially, I'd like to see a transcript of how the game played, not what happened as a result of all the game playing.

It is a matter of honor for Michelle's orc to recover the artifact and to kill the vampire lord.

Is this a game mechanic-driven thing? or just a player decision about character personality? If Michelle decides not to have her orc pursue restoration of her honor, does anything happen to her as a consequence, and are those consequences built into the rules (either as definite numerical changes to characters or a "softer" rule about honor and choices)?

Alex is playing a human Warrior. His attributes are all rather low ...

Why are Alex's characters attributes low? This sounds like a Gamist sort of game, with players "stepping on up" to the challenges tossed at them (and the video game feel). Did Alex start at a weaker position than Michelle? or did he start at the same place and just failed to advance as quickly as Michelle because his play was weaker?

Alex is one of those players who loves to play but is always a bit embarrassed each time we start. He plays conservatively and almost always chooses to run or hide from a fight, but then will occasionally do something very bold, and sometimes, dangerous. He constantly makes strange moral choices and watching his evolution as a player is almost as fun as watching his character choose between the life of a simple man and the life of a fantasy hero.

(Note: I crossposted with Clinton.)

I found this very, very interesting. What is embarrassing Alex? Does he feel out of place playing the way he feels he ought to or the way he wants to? Do the other players play differently than Alex? What about his moral choices are strange? What in the game (if anything) guides Alex as to "correct" moral choices?

I'll give Battleaxe a read later, when I have more time! Then I can make some more informed posts here.

[Doug Woolsey]

Clinton,
The dwarves were very much trying to keep the PCs from learning too much about the Great Machine while simultaneously trying to get a message to Darkwyrm Keep about the possibility the Machine may have been corrupted. This is the essence of the plot and the PCs will find themselves in the underground in the very near future.  I tried to GM the dwarves as being at once demanding and kooky. One of the things I didn't talk about in the above post was the carriage driver for the three dwarves the PCs met at the Crimson Pole. His name was Gombo, a near-total idiot coward. He was the antithesis of the stubborn, veteran warrior dwarf with the beard and the hammer that the other dwarves treated him as less than a subordinate. Before the gnolls shut the PCs in the tunnel leading to the underground, Gombo fled down the tunnel too. He had been previously hiding in the carriage while the PCs battled the gnolls. Gombo left most of the gear they needed in the carriage and left the PCs in a lurch; absent the gear they needed and without any way back out of the tunnel. "I left it in the carriage" became such a joke that when I asked Emily the next day where she'd put something I needed she AIMed me "I left it in the carriage" and we all nearly died of laughter. Indeed, yesterday Michelle was telling one of her good friends about it on the telephone. So, yes, the dwarves were a bit comical and over the top, but they left an impression on the players. That's one of the things I love about roleplaying -- no other social game I've played creates such moments.

Adam,
Thanks for the advice -- I would like to post more as the game develops, so I will try to focus more on the players and their experiences.

Also, with regard to Michelle's orc, her quest to find the vampire lord was part of her backstory. We developed it together during a conversation that took place before the game started. Each of the three characters had an extensive backstory, but Michelle's was definitely more dynamic. As far as orc honor is concerned and its relation to the game mechanics, there is no relation between the two in BRPG. Orc honor is simply a matter of setting, although because BRPG in its current form suffers from a thin setting, one would have to do some serious digging to find it (hopefully we will fix that in the coming year).


Clinton and Adam,
Alex's character started at a younger age than the other two. He was right off the farm and Alex really played that up. From the beginning Alex wanted to play the boy-turned-man character and his attributes really contributed to that in the end. This was a total accident. He's been playing his character in such a way that I feel is spot on, but has contributed to his earning fewer award points. His character's fear of battle and hesitation to try new things early on promoted the slow advancement, but he has since come out of his shell and has started actually taking a leadership role. While he was on his own in the underground, Alex was forced to make decisions without the guidance of the stronger and more experienced orc. His character managed to find his way out of a jam he had (intentionally) placed himself in. He was alone and couldn't rely on the more powerful orc or the high-rolling mage who was constantly setting opponents on fire. He fumbled through the dark until he found a torch. He confronted two koblins, subdued them, and stole a boat. He managed to get out of the underground and made smart decisions about how to look for his friends should they come out the same way. His solo adventure was a turning point and he has since then been playing much differently.

Mechanically, BRPG uses an attribute advancement system where your character becomes more proficient with his skills and spells as his attributes rise. Alex didn't really "tune" his character during character creation to be a Warrior. This is definitely my fault as I allowed us to rush the creation of his character. Because of that he has had a more-difficult time making his die rolls and accruing award points. Some of that has since changed and he's managed to increase his Action skill to the point where he is making more of his full-span rolls and dropping more monsters.

All mechanical issues aside, Alex is one of those guys who feels uncomfortable saying, "I will ask him if he knows so and so," and will instead say, "My character will ask him if he knows so and so." It takes him awhile to warm up to actually playing a character and immersing himself in the situation. I have found that the more animated I become, the more into he becomes. Also, some of that "rpg shyness" has gone away now that we've logged over twenty hours of play.

Lastly, with regard to Alex's strange moral choices -- I say "strange" but that isn't the right word. What I should have said is that Alex hasn't decided if he wants to play a man who will take advantage of an innocent or help save an innocent in need. Again, much of that has changed lately. While Alex's character would still steal a boat if he needed to cross a river, he wouldn't kill someone to get it done if he didn't have to. Watching him make those decisions has been fun because there isn't an alignment system that tells him what to do or who to be, there's just the character he wants to play. Now, it seems, he wants to play a man with a growing sense of duty and honor, a man with something to believe in.

Thanks,
--Doug

[Doug Woolsey]

Sorry, missed one of your questions, Adam.

We have been planning this campaign for roughly two months. We play (face-to-face) each night from 7 until 12am five days a week. We will be doing this for three weeks. I made a mistake in my earlier post as we started on August 4th and not the 5th. It has been quite taxing on me and I have started making some noob GM mistakes. I will gather notes an post more about that later if I have time.

Thanks,
--Doug

[Adam Dray]

If you choose to play a younger character in Battleaxe, does it put you at a disadvantage compared to players of older characters? That is, are the players of older characters going to have more options and abilities in game play?

Regarding Alex's embarrassment, I'd say there's a bit of a myth that role-playing requires acting. You can have a great game while talking in the third person. Really, saying "I will ask him if he knows anything" is one step removed from "Hey, you guy, do you know anything?" and it's still fun. It takes me a while to warm up to character-acting, too, and I'm a 20-year veteran of it.

Without seeing some more concrete examples of actual play, it's hard to tell if your players are all coming at this game from the same angle, but it sounds like you're having loads of fun, and that's all that counts! Keep it going, and post more!