Showing posts with label We Be Goblins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label We Be Goblins. Show all posts

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

We Be Savage Goblins! Part 3: The Adventure

In part 1 I covered the PCs, while part 2 covered the NPCs. This third and final part covers the adventure itself. I've decided to write it as an account of my session rather than as a generic conversion, but it should still be useful for anyone wishing to run the adventure for their own group.

Setting Rules

I used the Joker's Wild Setting Rule from SWD. I also let each player draw 3 adventure cards (after I'd removed any inappropriate cards from the deck); they could play the first card for free, and the others for 1 benny each.

Meeting at the Moot House

After reading the introduction to the players, I asked them to read out their respective descriptive blurbs, and offered them a benny each to sing or recite their character's song - they all took me up on the offer, and the humorous songs immediately set the mood for the adventure! Then I introduced them to Slorb and Chief Gutwad, and gave them an overview of their mission.

Dares

I handled the four dares as mini Dramatic Tasks, requiring three successes over three actions (instead of five successes over five actions), and I encouraged creative solutions. I only allowed each PC to participate in one dare, but I awarded a benny for successfully completing it.

Dance with Squealy Nord was based on Agility, and the player described kicking dirt into Nord's eyes before leaping onto his back. I resolved that as an Agility roll, with each success and raise giving the PC a +1 bonus to the first action of the task. The reward was a Dragon Brew Gourd, which could be consumed as a normal action and used once during the remainder of the scene to breathe a blast of fire (everyone within a Cone Template has to make an Agility roll at -2 or suffer 2d10 damage).

Eat a Bag of Bull Slugs Real Quick was based on Vigor, and the player drew Clubs for the last round (a complication); I described the final slug as being particularly swollen with throbbing green pustules. The reward was the Gorge of Gluttons, a weapon that granted +1 to attack and damage rolls against horses.

Hide or Get Clubbed was based on Stealth, and the player drew Clubs for the last round (a complication); the goblins found his hiding place! Fortunately (with a good roll) he was able to crawl away through the mud before he could be found. The reward was the Ring That Lets You Climb Real Good, which granted the wearer the Wall Walking ability.

The Rusty Earbiter was based on Agility, and the player smothered himself in grease, so I gave him a +1 bonus to his rolls. He scored three successes on the first roll, and I described how he dived into the Rusty Earbiter, sliding all the way through on his stomach without touching the sides! The reward was the Chief’s Personal Very Useful Robe That Is Useful.

The Big Bonfire

I postponed this scene until after the dares, and described a crowd of goblins fighting to reach the barrel of beverage provided by the chief. Everyone drew initiative to determine their positions relative to each other, and I positioned their minis on the table accordingly, then I placed four more goblin minis in front of them. I explained that it was an abstract representation of their approximate position in the crowd, and that they should describe each round how they wished to make their way to the front (this determined which trait they would roll).

The trait rolls were made at -2, with Clubs giving an additional -2 and a complication (similar to Dramatic Tasks), but I provided a +2 bonus for creative narrative. Each success and raise on the roll allowed the PC to move one place up the queue, until they reached the front (at which point they were removed from the queue). Of course when a PC moved past another PC, that other PC was effectively pushed back one place - I clarified that the PCs weren't necessarily pushing each other aside, but that it represented them being pushed back by the jostling crowd.

One player tried to sneak around the back, but drew Clubs and failed the roll. One of the guards whacked her over the head for queue-jumping! The rest of the PCs used a mixture of stealth and brute force to reach the front, at which point they drank themselves unconscious.

I described how they all woke up the next morning with headaches (from either alcohol or a blow to the head), and then the chief sent them off into Brinestump Marsh.

Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many

I fielded Lotslegs along with three giant spiders, and had them Surprise the PCs by jumping down from the trees; everyone had to make a Notice roll or miss the first round of combat, and the NPCs all started on Hold. But despite their initial advantage, the NPCs were rapidly torn to shreds.

At this point I decided to go off the rails a bit, as I fancied running a Chase scene for a bit of variety. The PCs heard loud crashing sounds as something huge moved through the swamp, smashing through the rotten trees - another spider, this one far bigger than the others. The players realised that this must be the real Lotslegs, and the bigger spider they'd fought earlier was probably her mate or perhaps her offspring. The PCs tried to attack, but I described the spider as being too big and strong to harm (i.e., Gargantuan with Heavy Armour), and explained that their only chance was to flee to somewhere where the spider couldn't follow.

The Chase lasted about three rounds, until one of the players drew a Joker and decided to go for its eyes. I allowed "cool narrative" to trump "planned chase" (and chose to overlook the fact that the Heavy Armour from Gargantuan should also apply to the eyes), and so the insane little goblin leaped onto Lotslegs' head and started burrowing into one of her eyes. It required another round of Chase actions (and of Lotslegs stamping on goblins) before the PC was able to reach her brain, and then some Agility rolls to avoid being crushed by the falling body, but the end result was a victory that really felt like an achievement.

The Horrid Horse Pen

I ran this as a very quick and aggressive fight, with Stomp charging the PCs and attempting to inflict as much damage as possible. Two of the goblins jumped onto Stomp's back (where he couldn't reach them) and clung on tight, while another ran away, and the last goblin sliced Stomp apart with the Gorge of Gluttons.

Front Gangplank

Two of the PCs approached the gangplank, so I had them make Notice rolls at -2; one of them spotted the trap and they were able to avoid it. The PC with the Ring That Lets You Climb Real Good walked around to the back of the ship and climbed up the side, while the last PC leaped (thanks to his potion of jump) straight up onto the deck.

Upper Deck

Instead of just Scabtongue and Tickletooth, I had six feral dogs on the deck, and they attacked on sight. However one of the goblins used his Dragon Brew Gourd to kill three of the dogs and shake a fourth, so in retrospect I should probably have fielded more dogs.

The second round the Shaken dog recovered, and I decided to immediately bring in Cuddles, Vorka and Lord Longtung (so that we could have an epic final battle rather than the PCs picking off the NPCs one at a time). Cuddles charged up from below deck, and moved straight into melee combat, using Wild Attack and gaining Gang Up from the remaining dogs. Vorka revealed that she'd been hiding in a crow's nest, and starting shooting fireworks at the PCs. Lord Longtung had been hiding in the other crow's nest, and he leaped down onto the deck, attacked Mogmurch (and missed) then leaped back up again (provoking a free attack which also missed).

On the third round, Lord Longtung repeated his previous tactic, and this time succeeded. He leaped back up to the crow's nest with Mogmurch in his stomach! Mogmurch then played on all three of his Hindrances: Curious (always likes trying things to see what happens), Deranged (mentally unstable and prone to doing crazy things) and Quirk (loves blowing things up); he set off a bomb inside Lord Longtung!

I ruled that Lord Longtung was blown apart (I didn't bother rolling) but that the PC was hit with a raise - he suffered 4d6 damage, which ended up causing several wounds. Fortunately he was able to play an adventure card to negate the damage, but I then ruled that he was blown off the crow's next onto the deck below. The player reminded me that Mogmurch is Bouncy, so as well as halving his falling damage I also ruled that on a d6 roll of 4-6 he would bounce right back up to the other crow's nest - and he did! I then had him roll again to see if he slammed into Vorka, but he didn't.

While this was going on, the rest of the goblins had taken down the dogs, and focused their attention on Vorka. Poog ran up the side of the mast (using the Ring That Lets You Climb Real Good), while Chuffy leaped up to the crow's nest and tried to hit Vorka in the back, and Reta started chopping down the rotten mast with her enchanted dogslicer.

Reta finally caused enough damage for the mast to snap, and it collapsed with everyone else still in the crow's nest, crashing to the ground far below. I resolved it with an Agility roll: a failure caused 4d6 damage, a success caused 3d6 damage, and a raise caused 2d6 damage. Poog and Chuffy managed to roll well, Mogmurch hit the ground hard (but bounced), and Vorka botched the roll (I ruled that she was pinned to the ground by her head).

Reta charged down the mast (which now served as a bridge to the ground below the ship), and I described Vorka's head being squashed into the ground with every step. She slid the last few feet, with her dogslicer extended beside her, taking off Vorka's head like a guillotine.

After the battle the PCs explored the ship, recovering the fireworks and several other treasures, then headed back to their village to celebrate.

Summary

The entire adventure took around 3 hours to run, and it felt like a lot happened in that time (by comparison, it took my other group around 6 hours to play the same adventure in Pathfinder, even though there were fewer enemies to fight). The players pulled off a lot of crazy and hilarious stunts, and I handed out a lot more bennies than usual (I'd estimate around 1 benny per player every 15-20 minutes on average, normally I only hand out around 1 per hour).

If I ever have the chance to run We Be Goblins again, I think I'll use more Extras, perhaps double the number of giant spiders and feral dogs.

Overall it was a very fun adventure that works extremely well with Savage Worlds, and it makes a great one-shot. It's definitely geared towards a group of 4 players though - I don't think it would work quite as well with more (or fewer) than 4 players.

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

We Be Savage Goblins! Part 2: The NPCs

In We Be Savage Goblins! Part 1 I covered the PCs, in this post I will cover the NPCs. I'm focusing mainly on the stats here, and will provide more detail about their tactics and usage in the next post.

The first combat encounter pits the PCs against the giant spider called "Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many". This is a reasonable challenge for level 1 characters in Pathfinder, but for Savage Worlds I felt I needed something more, so I had Lotslegs (as a Wild Card) plus three other giant spiders (Extras):

❄Lotslegs
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4 (M), Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d10, Climbing d12, Notice d6, Stealth d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 9 (2)
Special Abilities
Armour +2: Carapace.
Bite: Str+d6; Poison.
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Tremorsense: Can sense and accurately pinpoint anything within 12" that's in contact with the ground.
Web: Can walk on webs without penalty. Can also shoot webs as a normal action, treated like the basic Entangle power except using Agility as the arcane skill.
Mindless: Immune to mind-affecting magic.
Fearless: Immune to fear and Intimidation.
Wall Walker: Can automatically move across vertical or inverted surfaces with Pace 6".
Immunity: Mind-affecting effects.
Poison: Bite inflicts poison if foe is Shaken or wounded.
• Size +2: Increases Toughness by +2.

Giant Spider
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4 (M), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Climbing d12, Notice d6, Stealth d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Special Abilities
Bite: Str+d6; Poison.
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Tremorsense: Can sense and accurately pinpoint anything within 12" that's in contact with the ground.
Web: Can walk on webs without penalty. Can also shoot webs as a normal action, treated like the basic Entangle power except using Agility as the arcane skill.
Mindless: Immune to mind-affecting magic.
Fearless: Immune to fear and Intimidation.
Wall Walker: Can automatically move across vertical or inverted surfaces with Pace 6".
Immunity: Mind-affecting effects.
Poison: Bite inflicts poison if foe is Shaken or wounded.

In the second combat encounter, the PCs face off against a foul tempered horse named "Stomp". I decided that I wanted this to be a quick fight, so I made Stomp a strong Wild Card but didn't add any Extras to back him up.

❄Stomp
Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+1, Vigor d12
Skills: Fighting d6, Tracking d8, Notice d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 10; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11
Edges: Berserk, Frenzy
Special Abilities
Hooves: Str+d4.
Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
Scent: Can navigate, track and detect creatures by scent (range 6", halved for upwind and doubled for downwind, doubled again for very strong scents). Only adjacent creatures can be pinpointed accurately, and attacks made using scent are made at -2.
Fast Runner: Roll d8 when running instead of d6.
Size +3: Increases Toughness by +3.

The third encounter is the final confrontation, so once again I beefed up the opposition - instead of just two feral dogs (Scabtongue and Tickletooth) I had six, with Cuddles, Vorka (with spider climb already cast) and Lord Longtung joining the action in the second round.

Feral Dog
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d4, Survival d4, Tracking d8, Notice d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 8; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5
Special Abilities
Bite: Str+d4.
Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
Scent: Can navigate, track and detect creatures by scent (range 6", halved for upwind and doubled for downwind, doubled again for very strong scents). Only adjacent creatures can be pinpointed accurately, and attacks made using scent are made at -2.
Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

❄Cuddles
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d8, Survival d4, Tracking d8, Notice d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
Special Abilities
Bite: Str+d6; Go for the Throat.
Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
Scent: Can navigate, track and detect creatures by scent (range 6", halved for upwind and doubled for downwind, doubled again for very strong scents). Only adjacent creatures can be pinpointed accurately, and attacks made using scent are made at -2.
Go for the Throat: Target least armoured location on a raise.

❄Vorka
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d8, Climbing d6, Repair d4, Tracking d4, Notice d4, Shooting d10, Faith d10
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 (4)
Gear: Scimitar (Str+d6; 2 hands), firework (Shooting; range 12/24/48; 2d6; SBT)
Edges: Arcane Background (Miracles), Endurance (+2 to Soak and other Vigor rolls), Level Headed
Powers: Wall Walker (spider climb), Healing (cure wounds)
Special Abilities
Armour +4: Barkskin spell.
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

❄Lord Longtung
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d10
Skills: Fighting d8, Tracking d4, Swimming d6, Notice d4, Stealth d10
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 11 (1)
Edges: Strong Willed
Special Abilities
Armour +1: Spongy skin.
Bite: Str+d6.
Tongue: Str; Reach 1"; Grab.
Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
Scent: Can navigate, track and detect creatures by scent (range 6", halved for upwind and doubled for downwind, doubled again for very strong scents). Only adjacent creatures can be pinpointed accurately, and attacks made using scent are made at -2.
Grab: Pin your opponent if you hit with a raise, they require a raise on an opposed Strength roll to escape.
Swallow: After successfully pinning a victim with a bite attack, this creature may make an opposed Strength roll as a normal action. If successful the victim has been swallowed, and automatically suffers Str+d6 damage every round after that. A swallowed victim can attempt to climb back up to the creature's mouth as a normal action with an opposed Strength roll, although it still remains pinned by the bite. This ability only works on targets of Size 0 or smaller.
Natural Swimmer: Swimming Pace of 6", and +2 to resist drowning.
Size +3: Increases Toughness by +3.

Personally I like to print out the NPCs on cards, so that I can lay them on the table in front of me. Here are the NPC cards I used for We Be Savage Goblins (click on the image to enlarge):


In We Be Savage Goblins! Part 3 I'll describe how I converted and ran the adventure.

We Be Savage Goblins! Part 1: The PCs.

A few months ago I played Paizo's We Be Goblins, which was really great fun - it's a fantastic adventure, and free, I strongly recommend taking a look. But I couldn't help feeling it would work better with Savage Worlds instead of Pathfinder. Last weekend a friend came to visit, and joined my group for the weekend game, so I finally had the chance to put my theory to the test.

The first step was to create a goblin race, which was fairly straightforward, as I already had a prototype race converter and access to the Pathfinder goblin stats. The only thing I changed was the flat +1 Stealth bonus to a d6 starting die:

Goblin (+2 race)
Agile (+2): +1 die step to Agility.
Darkvision (+1): No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Stealthy (+1): Stealth starts at d6.
Size -1 (-2): Three feet tall; Toughness -1.

For a long-term campaign I'd probably also restrict their Strength to d10 and rule that their Agility can be increased to d12+1, perhaps also give them a Charisma penalty and a Riding bonus, but for a one-shot I wanted to keep things simple.

The four pre-generated PCs were created by feeding their stats into my NPC converter and then fine-tuning to balance them against each other and make sure they each excelled in their own way. They're all 10 exp characters.

Reta Bigbad
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d10, Riding d10, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Shooting d10
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 6 (1)
Gear: Leather armour, dogslicer (Str+d6), shortbow (range 12/24/48; 2d6), potion of cure wounds (automatically restores 1 wound), potion of spider climb (grants Wall Walking for the scene)
Hindrances: Risk Taker (loves taking risks to scare her enemies), Big Mouth (LIKES TO SHOUT ABOUT EVERYTHING), Quirk (enjoys tormenting small animals)
Edges: Dog-Sniff-Hate (can detect and track canines by scent; +1 attack and damage against canines), Balloon Head (trapping for Alertness)
Special Abilities
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

Chuffy Lickwound
Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d8, Climbing d6, Lockpicking d6, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Riding d6, Throwing d6
Charisma: -2; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1)
Gear: Leather armour, dogslicer (Str+d4), 6 darts (range 3/6/12; 2d4), potions of cure wounds, potion of jump (gain the ability to jump d6" as a free action for the remainder of the scene)
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty (loves stabbing people), Quirk (enjoys fires and explosions), Ugly (face covered in pimples and boils that have a tendency to pop at inopportune moments)
Edges: Thief, Weapon Finesse (roll Agility instead of d6 for bonus damage on a raise)
Special Abilities
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

Poog of Zarongel
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Repair d4, Riding d6, Notice d4, Stealth d8, Faith d8, Healing d6, Throwing d6
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (2)
Gear: Chain shirt, dogslicer (Str+d6), 2 javelins (range 3/6/12; Str+d6), wand of cure wounds (roll Faith, on a success it heals 1 wound, on a natural 1 the wand is drained and the roll cannot be bennied)
Hindrances: Overconfident (particularly in combat), Quirk (loves setting things on fire), Vow (sworn to kill a dog)
Edges: Arcane Background (Miracles), Quick, Power Points
Powers: Healing (cure wounds), Bolt (firebolt), Burst (burning hands)
Special Abilities
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

Mogmurch
Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d8, Spirit d4, Strength d4, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Healing d4, Repair d6, Riding d6, Survival d4, Notice d4, Stealth d8, Throwing d12
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 (1)
Gear: Leather armour, club (Str+d4), bomb (range 10/20/40; 2d6; SBT; 1 PP), 2 potions of cure wounds, smokestick (range 3/6/12; obscures a LBT for a couple of minutes)
Hindrances: Curious (always likes trying things to see what happens), Deranged (mentally unstable and prone to doing crazy things), Quirk (loves blowing things up)
Edges: Power Points, Arcane Background (Alchemy), Bouncy (halve falling damage)
Powers: Blast variant (bombs: increase to MBT/LBT for +1/+3 PP; increase to 3d6 damage for +2 PP)
Special Abilities
Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

The potions were intentionally kept very simple for the one-shot, requiring a normal action to consume, and granting an automatic benefit. I also made sure to write all of the other gear from the module onto each of the character sheets, such as the half-drunk perfume bottle, the child's doll with the eyes removed, the eye patch with a hole cut in it, and so on - lots of humourous items that really helped set the mood for the game.

I also took some liberties with the Edges and Hindrances, renaming and customising a few to better fit the characters, but I made sure I kept them easy to understand. Mogmurch's bombs were handled as an Arcane Background - effectively Weird Science (thus he could use Throwing), with a weakened variant of Blast (reduced range, although with the option of using a Small Burst Template).

In We Be Savage Goblins! Part 2 I will cover the NPCs.