The Dungeon Reality Show: Half-Time Showdown, Part 2

First Down, 5 Kobolds to go

Okay so after having, for all intents and purposes, killed the game by the time that 8h PM rolled by, I asked all three players if they’d be willing to play the original 2nd scene of the adventure.

I’m grateful that they accepted.

As I had planned it, had the heroes won the skill challenge from the first scene, their next task would have been to play a short game of “Blood Bowl” against a team of level 2 kobolds (3 Skirmishers and 2 Dragonshields).

Halfling MC: “Listen, since you killed off all the players during your show, we thought it would be fitting that you play the game now!  We’ll just grab a few Kobold extras to face you and this should be just peachy!  Makeup!”

(By the way, I didn‘t actually do many of these dialogues in the game.  As it often happens on Friday nights, the combination of  tiredness and drinking beer passed the stage of brilliant eloquence made for a much crunchier, less verbal session)

So the scene’s objective was ‘First team to score 3 goals or one hour of playing time, whichever comes first’.

Freely inspiring myself from what I remembered of the Bloodbowl game’s rules, we flipped for the who was on defense first (and got to kick the ball).  I asked if the players wanted to cheat the coin flip to be on offense but they ended up being on defense anyway.

Slavek Blud, athletic sorcerer extraordinary kicked the “ball” (a live clawing Kruthik hatchling) in the back of the kobold’s half of the field.  Kicking was a Str vs Ball’s Reflex defense.  As soon as the ball landed, it got up (it was first on the initiative marker) and ran back to the middle of the field. I had initially ruled that by default the ball would always run to the middle of the terrain, we ended up making movement random to prevent kickoffs to always end up the same way.

As is usually the case with such action-packed scenes, I forget the details but a few things are worth mentioning.

The PCs made ample use of the running rules and managed to score 2 points rapidly.  Catching the ball and making a run for it was the strategy that got used the most.

Try as I might, I was unable to score any points with a team of kobolds.  Of course, the Invoker made sure to use his status effect powers, like dazing a Kobold skirmisher right before it could grab the ball and make an unopposed beeline for the goal.

While playing, we established a few more rules.  You could snatch the ball from an opponent by playing Thievery vs Dex, Athletics vs Str or Acrobatics vs Dex. While we never thought of it, we could also have had a Blitz attack which is like a bull rush (Str vs Fort) except the target falls prone (and drops the ball) instead of moving one square back.

As the game progressed, the HP toll on the kobolds (who couldn’t heal unless one scored a Touchdown) started to be felt.  Toward the end of the hour, before the first kobold died, I made a play that exposed a weakness I hadn’t foreseen.  You see, I had placed all kobolds of the same type (Skirmishers, Dragonshield) on the same initiative roll.   Since the Skirmishers came right before the Dragon shield I made a play to take out the Sorcerer.

I moved all 5 Kobolds to squares adjacent to the Sorcerer (who was already bloodied) and had them delay their standard action to attack at the same time.  I scored many hits and I ended up killing the sorcerer.

In order to save the game a bit, I told the remaining 2 players that the sorcerer would be raised for free and allowed back on the field if they managed to score a third touchdown… which they did one or two rounds later!

After one hour (9h15 pm) we stopped the game with a score of 3-0. We were quite happy with how the game turned out and we were awed at the coolness of the new PHB2 classes.

The new classes in play

Seeing the Sorcerer, Invoker and Shaman in play for a few hours has brought me new insights in the classes that reading about them didn’t bring up.

First up, the sorcerer is an amazing class.  The powers ooze strength and elemental forces.  Yan, who’s usually a strictly melee type of player (because he craves close interaction with in-game elements) told me it was the first time he enjoyed a ranged class.  Although, to be quite frank, Yan took all powers that were Blasts and Bursts that he could, so in effect he had a more control-ish build than a pure ranged striker.

Also, it was really refreshing to see an arcane class actually competent in physical skills like athletics.  The sorcerer is a clear cut winner.

The Invoker remains my favorite controller class so far.  The powers of the Invoker have a certain level of flexibility that make them really interesting to play.  For instance, Divine Bolt is an at will ranged attack that can target two creatures and Thunder of Judgment is a Fluffiliscious ranged encounter power that can target up to 3 targets to damage and daze them, but it deals more damage if you only have one target.

The Shaman was the class I wanted to see in play most.  It got weak marks in our earlier assessment and I wanted to check if the class was better in play that it felt like in writing.  First off, Franky absolutely loved it!  He told me that he felt useful and involved as a support class.  Like all other leaders, many of its powers provide some form of healing however, the Shaman can do it with at-will powers.

The presence of the spirit really adds a new dimension to tactical fights as it can perform immediate attacks. In fact with a good melee weapon and the healing spirit placed judiciously, the shaman can become quite a hindrance for mobile monsters.

The Spirit of the Healing Flood daily power, which deals damage to enemies in a Burst 5 pattern (that’s huge) also gives regeneration 2  to allies in the blast (provided they are bloodied). The power also allows these allies to discharge the regeneration effect for a straight 10 HP gain without spending a healing surge.  That’s better than a healing potion.

However, the shaman does have a weird weakness.  The class’s powers aren’t based on Dex or Int.  It has no class features that provide bonuses to AC and is limited to cloth or leather armour. This means that a shaman’s AC sucks (On average 13 at level 1).  That’s why Franky spent his level 1 feat on Medium armour proficiency and bought a Dwarven Chainmail.  You need to keep that in mind if you intend to play one.

So all in all, I’m very satisfied with these 3 new classes.  I’ll get to see them in play some more soon enough as some of my players are getting ready to switch PCs in the next campaign that should start in mid-April.

Making the adventure better

Should any of you like to borrow the concept for an evening of mindless mayhem, I can vouch that it works.  We had tons of fun.  There’s still a few things I’d do to make the game better.  I may re-write it into a more comprehensive adventure later if there’s a demand for it, although with all the competing Intellectual Properties involved, I don’t think I could do more than post it as a Fan project.

Scene 1:

I’d consider separating the combat from the skill challenge.  Meaning that I wouldn’t allow attacks as part of a success of the challenge.  Thus, players would have to chose between fighting and putting on a show to the crowd.

Alternatively, I would allow it but put a maximum number of successes allowed with it (possibly 4 out of a minimum of 12).

Secondly, I wouldn’t skip scene 2 if the challenge is failed. What I suggest is to make scene 2 harder for the PCs by adding higher level opponents in the Bloodbowl team (or its meddling coaching staff) or by adding trap elements to the “game”.  Winning the challenge would lead to scene 2 as I wrote it, a game of bloodbowl against a team of monsters whose level matches the party.

Lastly, I’d roll initiative for each monster, not for each “type” as I had done.  This would prevent ganging up on one player without allowing the PCs to intervene.

Scene 3

The Zomboni is a scary monster that really works well,.  In order to make it a bit less lethal, I’d lower the damage output of its Bonegrind Engulf attack from 3d8+4 to something tamer like 2d8+4 and I’d allow some knowledge checks to warn PCs that getting caught in its immobilizing blast spells ensured doom.

There you have it! It was a blast to play and I managed to go from idea to fully-fleshed-out adventure in just one day.  I really love D&D 4e for that!