Yesterday I ran Tricube Tales at the Münchner Rollenspieltreffen (an organization in Munich that runs monthly RPG meetups, there are several tables available and anyone can sign up to run or play games). Although I've run games for 6 players in the past, I find that 3-5 players my sweet spot, so I offered 5 places and they filled up pretty quickly.
The games generally start at 11am (with entrance from 10:30am) and need to finish by 6pm at the latest, although most finish earlier (often around 5pm). That's still a long time though, as my Tricube Tales games usually tend to last 1-2 hours, so I decided to run a trilogy of three Tricube Tales games back-to-back, and tie them together by a common theme.
The three micro-settings I chose were Minerunners, Horrible Henchmen, and Tales of the Goblin Horde -- and as it was only one day after Valentines Day, I decided to go with a "heart" theme. I wanted to run humorous games as I find players tend to be more engaged with them (at least in my experience, although that could just be because of the way I run them).
Tricube Tales is designed to be low-prep, and when I run it for my son I don't prep at all. But I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I don't have the confidence to run completely improvised games for strangers, so I prepared outlines for all three adventures -- each was a set of notes (mostly bullet points) covering both sides of a single sheet of paper, and I split each adventure into five scenes.
At the beginning of the session, I explained the Tricube Tales rules. Then before each adventure, I read the introductory blurb from the top of micro-setting, spread 12 character cards on the table, and asked the players to choose their character (they could also discuss their choices with each other, of course). I then asked the players to introduce their characters, and explain how they joined the crew (for Minerunners) or came to serve the master (in Horrible Henchmen).
Minerunners
For the first scene, I described how the huge iron entrance doors closed behind the minerunners as their war wagon rolled through the Hall of Faces, the animated stone portraits of Mairdoom's greatest heroes were carved into the walls, and they wept, silently screamed, or simply smiled malevalently at them as they rolled past.
I then ran a quick flashback sequence to the meeting with their handler, Melik Sterneye, who had arranged the job for them and would take a small cut of the profits. A wealthy private collector had learned that a dwarven alchemist named Olgar Whitemane had obtained a mysterious relic called the "Heart of Eternity" (a literal heart trapped within a crystalline sphere) and used it for many of his experiments. He was lost during the Day of Darkness, but the collector wanted the heart and was willing to pay handsomely for it.
Note: I ran this as a flashback so that we could get straight into the game, avoiding the risk of lengthy negotiations and/or discussions about whether the players should even accept the mission.
I dealt each player three Minerunner cards and allowed them to discuss and exchange cards, then I narrated how the war wagon drove through three different regions of the city (the players each played one card per region). The first region was Veinspire Market, a maze of toppled stalls and collapsed shops. The second region was the Gilded Abyss, a vast chasm that bisected the city, with dozens of bridges and walkways crossing back and forth. The third region was the Smeltspire Furnace, a towering forge that still glowed with arcane fire.
This scene took the longest to resolve, but it was a great icebreaker, as the players discussed their cards and then took turns describing their encounters and narrating their characters' actions.
In the second scene, the characters reached a huge circular hall, with massive support beams reinforced with rune-etched steel forming a vaulted ceiling overhead. This was the elevator shaft that led to the lower levels, and they needed to eliminate a small horde of zombies before repairing the elevator, then making their way down.
The third scene involved their journey through the lower levels, as they crossed a ravine above a river of molten iron, traversed a subterranean grove of luminescent fungi, passed a mysterious pitch-black river with levitating droplets, and finally crossed a metal walkway across an underground reservoir heated by magma vents while trying to avoid steam geysers.
In the fourth scene, the minerunners reached the residential district where the alchemist had lived, broke into his house, and proceeded to explore it. They found and destroyed the alchemist, who had transformed into a particularly strong zombie, and looted his home -- as well as recovering the Heart of Eternity, I'd prepared a list of ten random items (with descriptions rather than names), and I had each player make a crafty challenge to search for treasure. They found one item on a normal success, and two on an exceptional success.
The fifth scene involved the journey back, and I used the Minerunner cards again, except this time I dealt each player two cards and asked them to choose one and discard the other. I quickly narrated backward through the regions, asking the players to each play their cards at different points throughout the journey. I wanted to speed up the return journey, but not skip it entirely, so this seemed a good compromise.
I concluded by describing the faces on the walls sneering at them as they drove up the Hall of Faces, and the guards opening the entrance doors to let them out. The minerunners met with their handler and handed over the Heart of Eternity, then I asked them each to describe how they celebrated their newfound wealth.
Horrible Henchmen
After describing the scenario and having their players introduce their characters, I immediately jumped into a "day in the life" of a horrible henchman. I listed five jobs that needed to be done that morning (dental wrestler, laundry washer, foot scrubber, slop chef, and skull polisher) and asked the players to choose. I then went around the table, explaining the job to each player in turn, and asking them to explain what they did.
The dental wrestler had to extract one of the master's enormous teeth that was causing toothache, the laundry washer had to deal with an enormous pair of many-legged trousers that threatened to blow away and engulf the town, the foot scrubber had to clean the master's dozens of enormous prehensile toes while he relaxed in a bubbling sulfur bath, the slop chef had to prepare a horrifying breakfast to please the master, and the skull polisher had to clean the thirteen animated eldritch skulls that whisper terrible prophesies and drive the listener insane.
In the second scene, the master summoned all the henchmen to his room for an urgent mission. A party of adventurers had arrived in town and were staying at the Broken Wheel tavern, sniffing around for "adventure hooks". The master wanted the henchmen to ensure the adventurers came to the tower so that he could eat them -- their job was to come up with a convincing story that would send the adventurers to him. This scene involved one of the henchmen dressing in a hooded cloak and sitting in a corner of the tavern, the adventurers immediately went over to the "mysterious stranger in the tavern" thinking he must have a great adventure for them. Another henchman dressed as a woman claiming her baby had been kidnapped by the evil wizard in the tower, and the other henchman also stepped forward with convincing tales. The adventurers declared that they'd head out at nightfall to save the town from the evil wizard, and the henchmen headed back to the tower having completed their task.
The third scene was another series of jobs. The "ghoul wrangler" had to track down Larry the ghoul, who had once again escaped from being locked up in the basement. The "extreme gardener" had to prune the carnivorous plants (a bad roll here resulted in the henchman almost getting eaten, the same as all the previous gardeners). The "recruitment interrogator" had to interview an evil cultist who was looking for a new master, as their previous masters had all been killed by adventurers (the applicant proved a bit too ambitious, and ended up becoming the master's dinner after attempting to backstab the henchman and taking their place). The "dimensional trashman" had to dispose of the accumulated trash (including several sacks of bones) by tossing it through a hole the master had ripped in the fabric of reality. And the "daredevil janitor" had to clean the master's incredibly dangerous study, while also searching for a cheap "ring of invisibility" the master had lost a while ago (the ring itself was also invisible, so it was difficult to find).
In the fourth scene, the master once again called all the henchmen to the top of the tower, and he was in a very bad mood. He explained how he'd once fallen in love, in the very, very distant past, with a beautiful young lich who had the shiniest bones he'd ever seen. But then she tore his heart out -- literally, she drove her fist through his chest and ripped out his heart, then ran off with it. He'd finally found the heart, a dwarven alchemist had it, and he'd hired some dwarven minerunners to recover it from a zombie-invested city. But then the delivery was confiscated at the town gate, and a local nobleman had stolen it for his art collection! The nobleman was hosting a fancy dress party that very evening in order to show off his collection, so the henchmen had to sneak in and recover the "Heart of Eternity". Suffice to say, this scene ended in a violent brawl, with the henchmen fleeing the house with the heart.
The fifth scene concluded the tale, with the henchmen returning to the tower to find the master chewing on the adventurers (who had broken into the tower while the henchmen were away). The master was delighted to have his heart back -- he immediately drained the energy from it, before tossing it out of the window, muttering "Ah, it's good to have that extra bit of power back". I asked each player to describe what their henchmen got up to for the rest of the evening, then we moved on to the next adventure.
Tales of the Goblin Horde
As well as reading the introduction and handing out the character cards, I also handed out a printed map of the goblin lands and gave a short overview of the various tribes. I didn't have the players introduce themselves yet, as I wanted to handle that in the second scene. This adventure wasn't completely original, instead, I looted heavily from "Back to the Roots", which I'd originally written for running at a convention.
The first scene involved the goblins being summoned by Chief Bignose, who was relaxing on a comfortable chair while drinking a large cocktail and being fanned by his flunkies. He explained that the Bonedigger tribe was planning to steal a powerful magic item called the "Heart of Eternity", and he wanted to have it. He had no idea what it did, but if the Bonediggers wanted it, then so did he. But the Bonediggers already had a headstart, so the crew would need to visit Hunchy Flatface and use one of his flying machines to get there faster. They had to travel to Summerford, steal the heart, and then return with it. But Chief Bignose pointed out that every mission seemed to end up with the goblins burning down half the town, and he did not want the goblins leading an army of humans back into Redfang territory again, so instead they should set up an ambush in Greenroot Cave. Chief Bignose had already sent Numpty Roundbelly the "reformed cannibal" (honest!) to set up some traps in the cave in advance.
The second scene covered the journey. It took the goblins a couple of days to reach Hunchy's workshop up on Hightree Ridge, so along the way I had them each take turns introducing their characters and telling a boastful tale about some past exploit (I actually used the SotGH Countdown Deck for this, as not everyone had a copy of the twist table). Eventually, they reached Hunchy, who bragged about how each of his flying machine prototypes was faster than the one before, and how the latest version had alchemical jets that were so strong they'd ripped the wings off in his last test flight. When questioned, he admitted that he hadn't yet added a way to safely land the thing. He explained how to pilot the flying machine, but his instructions were far from intuitive. But before the crew had time to ask any questions, he'd already pulled the release lever, and the flying machine was rolling toward the edge of the cliff.
I resolved the flight as a series of 10 challenges, and I went clockwise around the table briefly explaining the situation and asking the players to roll and narrate the outcome. The flying machine smashed through trees, its tail was nearly bitten off by a hydra, mechanisms became jammed and a few goblin gang members were knocked off or blown away, but eventually, the crew was able to "land" (i.e., smash into the ground without too many casualties) a short walk from the human town.
The third scene involved the goblins sneaking into the town, locating the house, getting into a brutal fight with the guards, and realizing that someone had already stolen the heart. After a "friendly chat" with one of the kitchen staff, the goblins were able to track the thief to a tall black tower on the edge of town, but before they had the chance to come up with a plan the Heart of Eternity was suddenly tossed out of the top-floor window and landed at their feet! Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, the crew grabbed the heart and fled the town. However, by this point they'd caused enough trouble that the town guard and local militia were assembling a large force to hunt them down and kill them, so they headed straight for Greenroot Cave about an hour ahead of the human army.
The fourth scene involved the classic "dungeon defense" scenario I've run several times for SotGH, as it's always a popular choice. The crew reached Greenroot Cave only to find Numpty Roundbelly relaxing outside with a load of goblins roasting on spits. Numpty admitted that he hadn't actually got around to setting up any traps yet, but he said he could offer the crew a hearty meal to set them up for the battle ahead! Unfortunately, he'd eaten all the borderland goblins who had lived in the cave, and he'd even eaten his own gang members as well, so they'd have to do all the fighting themselves, but at least they could fight on a full stomach, and surely that was more important than a few traps?
Suffice to say, the crew executed Numpty on the spot, then rushed to set up some traps before the army arrived. I used modified versions of the Ambush Cards from SotGH (adjusted to use TT traits and combat styles) and each player could draw and play two cards. I then ran it much like Dungeon Squat from SotGH, allowing the players to exchange cards beforehand, and take turns playing cards and narrating the outcome of their traps. This proved a little more effective than I'd planned due to some good rolls, with the players managing to eliminate 17 of the 20 effort tokens -- only a handful of the enemy survived to reach the central chamber, and the goblins annihilated them almost instantly.
The fifth scene involved the journey back, which was narrated without any further challenges. Chief Bignose was delighted to have the Heart of Eternity, and told them to put it in his treasure room -- so they just tossed it onto the pile of dusty treasure that Chief Bignose never looks at. I then asked each player to run a "shenanigans" for one of their gang members, and that concluded the final adventure.
Summary
I was a bit worried about the timing (it's hard enough to get the timing right for one adventure, let alone three), but it worked out really well, and we finished just a few minutes before 5pm. Most of the other groups had already finished playing by that point, but a couple of them were still playing.
One problem I've had when running games in the past (particularly when there are lots of players) is making sure everyone is engaged and gets to participate, as louder players often get more attention than quieter ones. But the approach I used in these adventures, where each player had a card, task, role, or ambush to perform, ensured that everyone had plenty of time in the spotlight. I will definitely use this approach more often in the future.
Another weakness of my games in the past is that they often felt like they ended abruptly. A friend of mine had a great solution to this when he ran Sundered Skies several years ago, where at the end of the campaign he asked each of us to describe what our characters got up to after the conclusion of the story, and we each had the chance to wrap up our character's storylines. I've attempted to do the same thing since then (although I sometimes forget), but it worked really well in this case, as I always gave the players the "final word" at the end of the adventure, letting them describe the ending.
Overall it was a fun experience and the players seemed to enjoy it too, but it was also very mentally exhausting for me, I'm just not used to running games for six hours straight anymore!
