Elfs Backfire Mnemonic

[stingray20166]

"Ummm. . .hi, everyone. . .umm. . .My name's Spanky and I'm stuck at the Anal stage of development."

"Hi, Spanky!"

"Hi.  Ummm, anyway, my player is going to be EM'ing (Elfs Mastering) a game tomorrow and we were looking over the magic rules.  We came up with this little rap to remember the backfire effects.  (Ahem.)"

(Poot!  Pa-toot!  Poot! Poot! Poot!)
"One or Two, your nose turns blue"  (Poot! Poot! Poot, poot, poot -ta -toot!)
"Three or Four, you're a whore!" (Male Vocal Background: "Ohh, baby, that's some rash!")
"Five or Six, lose your wits!"  ("Pa-ta-toot-toot!  [Beat] "HUH?!")
"Seven, Eight - QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!"
"Nine, Ten,  Golden Hen!"   (Shirley Bassey sample from Goldfinger: "He's the man, the man with the Midas touch.")
(Poot, pooooooot-pa-ta-toot!)

"Thank you.  Poot!  Excuse me."

(OK, I know the 9,10 result is "turn things yellow" but I realized that gold is also yellow.  I think my magic-slingers are going to be very much "in demand" when the humans see them apparently turning objects to gold!")

-- Nick, who should know better

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I liked the time in our game when a character's boots got lost or too tight or something, then rolled 10 on a backfire, and so left yellow footprints all over the orc-slaver's stronghold.

Hey, you got any questions about running or prepping for the game? I used a free on-line d20 module for my con demo, one of the type that boasts it's "old-way play with new-way rules!" and my God it was a hoot.

Best,
Ron

[stingray20166]

Oooh, I like the yellow footprints.  I'll use that.  

Hey, you got any questions about running or prepping for the game?

Actually, I am using "N1 -- Against the Cult of the Reptile God" as our first foray.  You may have heard of it? :-)

I decided to use that specifically after reading your account here.  Plus, I too ran the module several times for different people back in the D&D days.  

It was really funny re-reading the module these years later.  For instance, I noticed one farm was well detailed with the names of the father and two sons who would attack the party if they just marched up to the farm.  But the wife was given no name -- just a stat (AC 10, HP 6).  I never noticed that back in the day.

Ironically I liked this module because the focus was on the mystery, rather than pure combat, at least for the first half of the module.  Even back then I think I was dissatisfied with the game -- I just didn't have the words to express why.

Incidentally, I'm going to use the "evil NPCs have reptilian habits" schtick, but with a twist -- they are also smokin' dope.  The reptile behiavior is a side effect.  See, the spirit Naga is the Drug Lord, the Trogs are the main pushers and the farmers are the users.  The Naga's charm ability is really addicition.  The "good" citizens want the drug trade shut down.  As an Elf, who would you side with?  :-)

Oh, and remember the monk who was driven mad by his exposure to the Naga?  "He's havin' a bad trip, man!"

Finally, I decided to leave some of the spells intact for the humans -- I thought "silence", "hold person" and "darkness" would be amusing.

For a beginning, I'm using a couple of techniques as suggested here and in the Elfs rulebook.   First, all the characters are going to start in the sewers of the city I used in our last real Fantasy game (using Fudge).  They are going to meet in a "*" shaped room -- each coming from their own pipe with a crowd behind them trying to kill them.  Why is up to the players.  

They have two Spunk left each -- I want to keep this battle short and the Elfs will lose -- I just want them to start learning the Low Cunning/Dumb Luck and how it adds to Spunk.  I'm NOT going to tell them how to use LC/DL at first -- I'm going to let them roll their 2 spunk and fail.  Then I'll let them know how to use LC/DL and add to their total.  

Once they've been defeated they will wake up in the throne room.  King Edwards (double-pun -- "Ron" of course and that was what we called Governor Edwards from LA when I was growing up) will tell them that they have caused enough trouble and are being assigned to find out the trouble in Oralane -- a "Dirty Dozen" scenario.  And then they start on the road to Orlane, just as the module opens.  

At least, that's the plan -- suggestions welcome.  

--Nick

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

I dunno man, that kind of pre-prep to get to the real-prep is kind of over-elaborate ... Elfs players have a way of fucking it up really easily. I'd just Dirty Dozen'em right from the start and drop'em in Orlane.

Although I do like the convergence chased by separate mobs.

Your Orlane prep sounds great! Did I mention that I made the evil clerics brother and sister? And the brother has a thing for the sister and the sister is all inhibited and hung-up?

"Spirit Naga" = "drug lord" ... unbelievably excellent. I'm kicking myself, it's so obvious ... I guess for me, serpent-women (even this one is only a babe from the neck up) are always about sex, so I totally missed the possiblities.

Best,
Ron

[Ben Morgan]

I've used that exact opening situation myself, and it worked great. Too bad I only got to run 1 session before the group fell apart.

-- Ben