LFG Session 6: Weebury Wanderers

Run Date: August 20th, 2022

Every step forward seems to come at the cost of several steps back. I’ve found myself falling into some bad habits and tunnel-visioning on learning mechanics over keeping the game flowing. LFG doesn’t have a CR system or “the party should be fighting this sort of stuff” lever, and my initial random hooks ended up being above the group’s pay grade by every standard (as seen in previous reports). I don’t wish to rain on their well-earned victories, but it does act as a reminder that my priorities need a bit of a rebalance. With that out of the way:

PCs

Rebel(Sa): Lv2 Monk

Richard(Sh): Lv1 Fighter

Baldur(Pa): Lv1 Barbarian

Weebury Wanderers

Rebel returns from her training as a level 2 Monk, choosing to continue randomizing the skills she obtains and earning an ability that would’ve helped with all the ghosts she’s been dealing with. Between training sessions, she also picked up a ghosteel dagger and some ghosteel tips for her staff. Richard, having been upgraded from henchmen to PC, settled his work for the week and met with the others at the Red Tankard. Finally, Baldur, a big idiot louder than a blowhorn, stepped in.

When I was first setting up the game, I rolled up some random events for a variety of hooks. One such event was a group of Giant Ants that attacked one of my patron player’s merchant caravans. Since then, this group of ants have hunkered down in the town of Weebury. Now, a month and a half later and after many forays into the Oldtown Graveyard, the party decided to regroup and follow another job. It helps, of course, that the Riversmeet Trade Council put out a 500gp bounty for the group that dealt with the Weebury problem.

LFG Session 5: A Lesson In Moderation

 Run Date: August 13th, 2022

There is a simple rule when gambling: The house always wins. In today’s case, the players ran out of luck (figuratively and literally).

PCs

Thorin(Pa): Lv2 Magic User

Hallow(Sh): Lv2 Fighter

A Lesson In Moderation

Rebel was out again today, leaving Thorin and Hallow to decide how to approach the session. Over the week, they’d worked on a few side gigs with downtime; Hallow spent time working with the guard and Thorin continued to buddy up with his apprentice. Richard, the guard that works the graveyard shift, came in to update them on the situation over in Oldtown. The party received 100gp apiece and official letters giving them permission to enter the graveyard as desired (up until now, they’ve had to go through someone). It seems that reward was tasty enough to convince them to head back and see what treasure they missed out on.

There was a bit of discussion about whether or not to bring the whole crew (old henches included), and they settled on a “simple recon mission.” Quote, “If it ends up too dangerous, we’ll come get the others.” As they say, famous last words. At the very least, the pair invited Richard for the excursion, and off they went.

LFG Session 4: Graveyard Gamble

Run Date: August 6th, 2022

This session was predominately learning how to manage combat alongside many henchmen. Everyone expected a TPK, but the players’ Luck (both literal and mechanical) held out. Alternatively, I made some weird calls and oh well.

PCs

Rebel(Sa): Lv1 Monk

Thorin(Pa): Lv2 Magic User

Hallow(Sh): Lv2 Fighter

Graveyard Gamble

We opened the session with a summary of downtime and a discussion of the battle plan. Rebel spent her week interviewing and hiring henchmen to aid in the party’s investigation of the graveyard; then threw a party, complete with steak dinner, in honor of their potential demise. Partying went so hard she woke up with a leather-bound chain of human vertebrae with strange carvings. Meanwhile, Hallow trained with the city guard and met Instructor Doberman. Thorin’s research bore fruit as he learned more about the Lancaster history and the bracelet he was suspicious of. Finally, Arkin, the Artificer working in the background, finished the potions he was working on using the unicorn horn.

LFG Session 3: Graveyard Gutterball

 Run Date July 30th, 2022

Not a lot of note happened in today’s session, but the party got a lesson in a world that doesn’t scale to their level. The Magic User has also shown interest in designing his own spells or converting some from other games.

PCs

Rebel(Sa): Lv1 Monk

Thorin(Pa): Lv2 Magic User

Hallow(Sh): Lv1 Fighter

Graveyard Gutterball 

We started the session with a bit of clumsy tech work and going over downtime results and details. I’ve been trying to get everyone into a Discord server so I can manage things with them throughout the week and distribute news/events. Downtime is an opportunity for me to throw out more narrative and do a bit of the storygaming stuff I’m so used to, as well as build more layers and texture into the world. After the initial stumbling, the group starting talking about last week’s trip to the graveyard and getting Rebel up to speed. While they were working out ideas and a plan, I was working out the progress of the Graveyard in Oldtown’s. The group helped me roll up a bunch of baseline pieces to work with (they rolled the Number Appearing, but didn’t know what for or why). After that, the mission was on.

LFG Session 2: Invocation of Thunder

 Run Date: July 23rd, 2022

Today really hammered home just how little I’ve learned about LFG, as well as how much I enjoy just rolling dice with the group. As a general rule, I prefer to have memorized everything I can so I don’t really need to open a book or go looking for things. I tend to get a bit OCD, however, and need to double triple check things even if I’m reasonably sure I know. I’ve got years of experience making rulings, but if I’m going to be teaching this new group then I need to master the game.

The session itself went pretty well between a chaotic riot, stealing some charts from the Mass Battle rules, and a bit of exploration into Riversmeet’s Graveyard in Oldtown. We were also down a player. 

 

PCs

Thorin(Pa): Lv1 Magic User

Hallow Sween(Sh): Lv1 Fighter

Invocation of Thunder

The party (from last week) returned to town today, receiving their rewards and splitting off for some downtime and research. Hallow, now alone, decided to take a stroll through the town and wind down a bit. Unfortunately for her, she crossed the heart of Riversmeet as a mob of angry workers had started yelling in protest and riling up others. The guards started to prepare for a riot. As the mob group grew, the high sun and heat mixed with the years long drought pushed them into desperate madness. One called out that the lords of the Trade District were forcing up prices to make them penniless, and received a united cry of approval. This cry happened just as a Red Sun merchant was crossing the central bridges. His presence instantly became a target and the mob charged at his wagon and entourage. This triggered the guard captain’s signal and everything collapsed into chaos. This entire event was the result of a random roll in one of LFG deluxe’s many tables. Since the amount of actors was so large, I borrowed the melee attack chart from the mass combat rules (mob: Militia, Guards: Infantry) and eyeballed the rest.

LFG Session 1: A Rat In The Hand

 Run Date July 16, 2022

I feel like I’m eternally behind on prep, but I hope to have a strong foundation to work outward from in due time. The session itself covered a little bit of everything despite being a bit too by-the-numbers for my preferences, and the players seemed to enjoy themselves. The group took ~7 days to complete their missions, leaving on the 16^th of Cervis Rising and returning on the 23^rd of the same.

PCs

Varsay- Lv1 Artificer

Hallow Sween- Lv1 Fighter

Rebel- Lv1 Monk

A Rat in the Hand

We open with the party chillin’ in an old tavern called the Red Tankard in the trade district of Riversmeet. It’s your typical place for rumors and job posts. Of the options available, the party found themselves discussing profit, risk, and altruism with Rebel and Hallow favoring the latter and Varsay the former (nobody liked risky business). After a bit of discussion, the group decided to hit up a call by an apprentice alchemist from the Amstral University to inquire about his request for a particular ingredient. They headed down the road a ways to an inn their potential patron was staying in.

Preamble (Update: Feb 19th 2023)

July 11^th, 2022

I’m not entirely certain how to begin so I’ll just hop right in. This is the beginning of my experiment with Low Fantasy Gaming (LFG) and a variety of concepts touted by the BroSR. I ended up down the rabbit hole after watching a stream where Jeffro Johnson (seeming spokesman) explained the ideas behind his original experiment. It had been some years since I’d had the chance to sit down and run a game (my experience being with D&D 5e) and a lot of the concepts sounded great. LFG was a system I had discovered some time ago after having various conflicts with the power curve of 5e and the tone I wanted to set for the world, but never had a chance to sit down and run it until now.

I’m still shaking off the rust and trying to figure out just how each piece is going to fit (and I’m sure if any BroSR types see this I’ll get the “just play RealD&D”), but the fun of an experiment is the opportunity to learn. To that end, I’ve lined up the concepts as I understand them and will be working through mechanics, including but not limited to LFG, to see how this all works out. Disclaimer: If I understand the rabbit hole terminology I’d probably fall under the “storygamer” title so we’ll see how much that is reflected in the experiment.