So I met with the local University gaming group (more on that here). We had an hour or so to kill before the latecomers would arrive, so I convinced the three others at the table to play a game of Great Ork Gods. One of the players belongs to my regular group (in fact he's gearing up to GM our first Sorcerer game) while the other two are not as well known. I have talked with them about gaming experiences, but have yet to actually play with them.

Anyway, I handed out the oh-so-convenient Great Ork Gods one-sheet and we did some randomized characters. In the interest of speeding up creation I invented an entirely new way of distributing Hate: 1d4+1. Generating a number between 2 and 5, quick and dirty. I liked it a lot.

I ran the adventure straight out of the rule book. There were some interesting developments. First off, as soon as the elf showed up one of the players decided to throw a goblin at him. Success! The elf falls off the roof. Spite is awarded. Other interesting goblin uses included: mystical spinning goblin shield technique! Sword in one hand, shield in the other. Shield? That's why they're following me around right?

Some of my absolute favorite moments included:

"I search the house looking for a human to interrogate." "The house is deserted." "I set it on fire so that I'll remember I already searched it."

"All of the village building have burned down, except for one which is made of stone." "Aha! My plan has succeeded, that must be the Mayor's house."

"You see a bullseye lantern." "I'm going to burn the building down." "Ok, Obscurer of Things, how hard is it to operate a bullseye lantern?" "Hmm... that's a medium difficulty task." "Spite anyone?" [4 Spite tokens hit the table. Failure on the roll.] "Ok, That Which Guards the Gate, how hard is it to survive being on fire?" "Well, for an orc, probably a medium task." "Spite anyone?" [No spite, success on the roll.]

"You see mayor with three young women kneeling in front of him." "I grab the mayor and demand to know where his three daughters are!"

"I attack the mayor's daughters. I'm going to kill them all." "Slashing and Slayings, how hard is it?" "All three daugthers at once?" "Yeah." "Um... medium." "Spite anyone?" [Of course there's Spite. Roll fails.] "You fail to kill the daughters. Out of nowhere they pull out swords and attack you! That Which Guards the Gate, how hard is it to survive three crazy women with swords who are very angry?"

"I attack the lone Ork survivor of the raid (one of the PCs)." "Slashing and Slayings?" "She doesn't see him, it's easy." [Success] "Ok, That Which Guards the Gate?" "Definately hard." "No one has any Spite so roll." [Success]. "You now have a sword sticking out of you, what do you do?" "Kill my attacker." [Success.] "Ok, guy without the sword sticking in him, what do you do?" "Hmm, I am going to pull the sword out?" (One of the other players then shouts: "The wrong way right?"). "Yeah, the wrong way!" [Success against That Which Guards the Gate]. "He's trying to pull the blade out through you. What do you do?" "I kill him." [Success.]

So, it was a lot of fun. I feel that we played this as a total farce, and were incredibly successful with it. I would seriously be willing to try it again sometime...

Thomas

Wa ha ha hooey! When I discovered this game, I insisted on playing it with every one of my role-playing groups at the time.

It is nothing but good.

What we need, though, are many many many scenarios just as good as the one in the game. So far, I have so much fun with this one that I just keep running it. But one of these days ...

Best,
Ron

I agree whole-heartedly. One thing I love about the starting scenario is that there is just the right amount of stuff already in place for you to whip up a great romp. I really, really liked using 1d4+1 for stats since it meant characters got whipped up in about one minute since you didn't have to think about what your Ork was good at. I had two players go through three or four Orks, but I had one survive all the way through despite my efforts involving psycho sword swinging women and burning buildings... I never expected to see anyone end the session with 9 Oog...

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

LordSmerf wrote: In the interest of speeding up creation I invented an entirely new way of distributing Hate: 1d4+1. Generating a number between 2 and 5, quick and dirty. I liked it a lot.

"I search the house looking for a human to interrogate." "The house is deserted." "I set it on fire so that I'll remember I already searched it."

So, it was a lot of fun. I feel that we played this as a total farce, and were incredibly successful with it. I would seriously be willing to try it again sometime...

Jack,

First, I want to say "thank you for making Great Ork Gods". I neglected to mention this earlier, but the two players who I am not so familiar with are rather unfamiliar with the idea of shared authority (that is, they have played exclusively in games that tend to place all authority in the hands of the GM). I think GOG was a great introduction to the idea that authority can be handed to anyone.

Another thing I really, really liked was that it was short. Where we might have busted out a board game or something to kill an hour, now we can bust our Great Ork Gods and play in the same amount of time. It is also a ton of fun to watch.

So, feel free to pirate any of the quotes in my Actual Play post. I bet my players would love to know that they managed to get the game's creator to go "oh...."

Thanks again for such a fun game.

Thomas