Ran my first multi-player game (demo) last night

[Nathan Frund]

And I gotta say that it went great.  It was a very simple run through with just a bit of scenario to get players into the setting. 

I purchased some plastic figs for positioning and before I had 5 or 6 cut free, character creation was done.  I knew that character creation was fast but, holy cow.

The two Greek Hero PCs were pitted against a four Persian scouting party.  Three were mooks while one was a named NPC - the commander.

With 7 figs on the table, positioning remained dynamic to the end.  NPCs would move and would be moved by the PCs who would almost always win the positioning tests.  One of the greek heroes rolled a 24 for his positioning via a bit of luck and Divine Favor.  But!  He couldn't move everyone at once.

Since the persians were armed with a gamut of active weapons; sword, spear, javelin, bow, the PCs were always within range of someone even at penalty which allowed the persians to score a few hits causing a wound or two.

One hero ran up the side of the mountain and began hurling large rocks down onto the persians while the other hero continued to maintain her distance while flinging arrows to devestating effect.  The mooks fell like wheat to bow fire. 

A rock hit the Persian commander so I made an on the fly decision to treat it as a D12 weapon.  Through athletics, grace, luck, divine favor and sturdy armor it did no real damage but in only a few more rounds the commander would fall under the onslaught of a hail of javelins and the business end of a greek spear.  At first he was giving as good as he got but was simply outmatched.

Everyone had a great time including me since the game virtually ran itself.  It was very interesting to watch the players make thoughtful decisions about positioning and weapons choice decisions during the breaks.  I LOVE how easy it is to use abilities as helping dice.  Once I did it with the Persian commander, the PCs began to do the same as everyone was jockying for the advantage.  Before the persian commander bit the dust, he was virtually exhausted of ability options and divine favor.

Now, I'm off to write a proper adventure...

[John Harper]

That sounds like a great way to introduce the game, Nathan. I'm glad it went well.

Did the players do the achievements phase, and if so, were any Oaths used during the demo? I've noticed that Oaths sometimes are forgotten until one player uses one, then the floodgates open and they go wild with them.

[Nathan Frund]

We did do the achievements scene which helped knit the two characters together but no one cashed in any oaths.  I suspect it would have been different if the NPC competition had been a bit stiffer.