Session Report: [Wardens of the Selarin Forest] - The Journey To Blackstangate Castle

Preamble

For many decades, the men of Ninnegal had been seeking ways to secure their lands from the depredations of Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Ogres and Giants from the Blackstone Mountains running along their Eastward border. The Ninnegalese had every intention of driving these creatures back, deeper into the Blackstone range, to preclude the regular raids and incursions these creatures staged upon the eastern farmlands of the Duchy of Nordland.

The men of Ninegal also felt a kinship with the Freeholders of Shanador for some of them had originally come as political refugees from a civil conflict in Ninnegal. There were thus some blood ties with the Freeholders albeit a few generations removed. The Freeholders had made some of the valleys in the Blackstone range theirs, forming small Freeholds - independent, hardy and militant by necessity. The Freeholds unfortunately were pressed on all sides by threatening raiders of the same nature as those that threatened the Duchy of Nordlund in Ninnegal.

Ninnegalese merchants also recognized the great value that secure trade routes through the mountains, connecting Nordlund to the Kingdom of Larboma by way of the Freeholds of Shanador, would create for all parties. This would also help ensure Shanador could import badly needed military aid to help push back the raiders and thus to shore up their economy.

To this end, the Ninnegalese of the Duchy of Nordlund had dedicated themselves to the notion of creating such a route, from the eastern farmlands of Nordlund through the Blackstone ranges and the Freeholds of Shanador to Larboma close to the important population center at Axer and giving access to the trade traveling on the large body of water known as Crystal Lake.

For the past two decades, the forces of Ninnegal had been contesting with their foes in the foothills of the Blackstone mountains to establish a foothold. This involved survey, temporary military encampments, engineering work, and eventually protecting miners and stonemasons during the construction of a castle (of the keep and bailey design) on a significant rock rise on a hillside. The valley was the one through which the river known to the Selarin Elves as Induin-rhunen (the Western Heart River) flowed on its way to the the sea and through which a small road wove from the farmlands to the of eastern Nordlund deeper into the Blackstone ranges.

The entire effort took 20 years, but the castle has finally been completed and now is ready to extend its garrison and increase its population of tradesmen, merchants, soldiers and clergy.  The castle was named Blackstangate as it is indeed the gateway to the Blackstone mountains. The keep stands on the borderlands between the goodly folk and the raiding marauders of the Blackstone ranges.

Recently, the Eorl of Blodstanshire, His Lordship Emeric Griffin, sent forth notices far and wide seeking traders, scouts, engineers, smiths, merchants, men-at-arms, archers, landless knights, yeomen, caravaners, surveyors, healers, and 'a special few independent souls willing to risk danger for the good of the realm'.  The Eorl was sure to include carefully diplomatic messages to the dwellers in the Selarin forest, the Dwarven communties and Gnomish communities to their West, and to the various non-human races who might be willing to lend a hand.

Chapter 1: The Journey to Blackstangate Castle

The Senior Warden of the South-Eastern Extents, Celebril Caranmir (uncle of Merril Caranmir) received a request from Eorl of Blodstanshire requesting politely any possible assistance the Wardens of the Selarin Forest could to the new Castellan of Blackstangate Castle, Lord Gerrart Kendrick. As the Eorl had been a good neighour and ally to the forest dwellers, as had his father and his father's father before him, and as the Eastern Extents were not under excessive pressure at the present, it was decided that a small unit of Wardens would be sent to the aid of the Castellan of Blackstangate.

And thus, on the 1st day of the 4th month, 4 Wardens set out from the Eastern Extents bound for Blackstangate. The company was led by Merril Caranmir, a Selarin Elf ranger trained by Celebril himself. With her would come a Forest Gnome Druid named Aspen Asperia with her badger "Scratch", a Tallfellow Halfling rogue of the Tallbows known by the name Rowan Thistlefoot, and a visiting Searethan Elf Wizard known as Telephinion Iouristan or "Finn" to his friends. The Searethan was participating in an exchange program, learning more about his forest brethren while one of them spent some time in the City-State of Seareth's academies.

4th Month Day 1

The weather was sunny and cool when the venturers set out. The first day and night passed without event - pleasant travelling with easygoing companions. The Wardens shared their knowledge of the forest and the outside world with one another and talked of family lives. Foraging was good.

4th Month Day 2

The second day brought an encounter with Merril's keen Elven vision spotting some approaching Centaurs. The Wardens elected to conceal themselves and observe, both to avoid detection and to take a better estimation of the Centaurs nature and purpose. As the Centaurs appeared to be harmless and respectable travelers, the Wardens let them pass unaware they were ever observed.

4th Month Day 3

The third day brought moderate rain as they traversed a mix of forest, fen and forested hills. The rain was intermittent to start with and travelling was not onerous, just damp. Not as much wildlife was seen and the temperatures were cooler.  As night approached, the rain intensified and the group sought a decent place to spend the night and make camp. A small rise in amidst the scrub served to locate their bivouac above the puddles forming in the lower areas. A small fire, sheltered from the rains, was built and the team turned in, with the Elves taking turns on watch.

Night Encounter: Goblin Raiders

In the wee hours of the morning, in full darkness, a hapless band of Goblins - likely a small raiding party - happened upon the campsite of the Wardens. As Telephinion was on watch and does not have the most well-tuned woods senses, and with rain beating down, nobody saw the Goblins approaching. The rain works both ways as the Goblins similarly did not see the encampment until they were almost on top of it.

The six Goblins spotted Telephinion about the time he spotted them. His cry awoke Merril who had been in Reverie, dreaming about the bright white flowers of the ancient silverwood trees. Rowan and Aspen roused, but both were unarmoured and had to grab up their weapons. In the meanwhile, Finn and Merril elected to try to hold off the Goblins.

The Goblin party outnumbered the Wardens, being six in number with two archers in their number. The archers moved to firing positions and engaged the Wardens and Finn and Merril returned fire. The return fire was very effective, felling quickly two Goblins. The Goblins, being somewhat callous and inured to the misfortunes of others, continued their attack.

A Goblin archer grazed Merril and a charging Goblin's blade slashed Rowan after he failed to down another Goblin with his bow, instead wounding him. The melee-armed Goblins pressed in while the archers manouvered for clear lines of fire. Aspen took up a position from which she could move to aid the injured as needed and provide missile support with her sling, scoring a wound upon another Goblin, as did Merril with her bow.

The Goblins pressed hard and Finn re-positioned to help cover the unarmoured Rowan and Aspen. Merril continued to down Goblins with her well placed arrows, missing only once during the entire fight. Rowan shifted to using his short sword and Finn switched to his magic, blowing a Goblin's chest open with a magical force projectile. Aspen healed Rowan as a precaution using one of her weaker healing spells.

In short order, only one Goblin remained and he had no longer the stomach for the fight. Merril made the call to attempt to slay the last Goblin as he fled, feeling their was no intelligence to be gained from an interrogation and wanting to rid the forest of such foul little menaces. A volley of fire from the Wardens, no doubt impeded by distance, darkness, and heavy rain, only succeeding in winging the last fleeing Goblin before he escaped into the brush back the way he came.

Aspen healed Merril and the team settled back for the remainder of the night.

4th Month Day 4

The rain continued the next day as the company made its approach to Blackstangate Castle down the North Eastern Trade Road (Provisional). The valley containing the castle was sided by large hills with thick stands of forest, centered by the Induin-rhunen (Western Heart river) and some marshy sections, and traversed by the trade road. Blackstangate stood on a treeless rock outcropping, carefully selected to be very difficult to assail by the creatures of the mountains without great effort.

From the dead Goblins, who had obviously been the recent end of some wealthy traveller, a purse containing 20 golden Lions (Larboman coins) and a vial containing a strange glowing light blue liquid. The vial appears to cast light equivalent to moonlight when shaken. This item would require further investigation after reaching Blackstangate Castle!

The journey ended as the the company ended its fourth day, having faced its first, albeit only moderately hazardous, combat encounter. This was the first time most of the party members had actually had to take the life of a living being in pursuit of their duties. A solemn and thoughtful company arrived to the gate of the Castle, joining a short line of people seeking admittance before the gates closed for the night.

Notes for Journey To Blackstangate Castle

Special Note: This was Catherine's first D&D session, her first visit to the World of Kaladorn, and her first role-playing session ever. She did very well for someone picking up the nature of the game and the decision making as well as dealing with encounters. Next time, hopefully she'll get to interact with some townsfolk. Sometimes soon, I hope to move her from solo play, once she is comfortable, to group play with some other folks in Ottawa. 

Experience Awards: Merril Caranmir - 225 xp, Aspen Asperia - 170 xp, Telephinion Iouristan - 160 xp, Rowan Thistlefoot - 150 xp

Treasure: 20 Larboman Gold Lions, 1 potion to be identified

Next : Chapter 2 - Blackstangate Castle (meet the Castellan, explore the outer bailey, meet local personalities, then maybe begin work)

Game Design 101: Experience Points

What Role Do Experience Points Play In An RPG?

Experience points (XP) exist to provide a method of character advancement. That's really just another way of saying a way to reward players and to give them the feeling their characters are alive because they can change and grow in response to their experiences.

So the first, and obvious, use of XP is to give the player's a reward and to show that the game world is not static, that their character's have a reward motivation for doing what they do, and to let the player's feel like they are getting somewhere. Character's progress in ability, perhaps from neophytes capable of only the most basic and simple operations to hardened professionals (or feudal lords and mighty wizards, depending upon the genre).

Less obvious, but no less important (and moreso to the GM), is the notion that a system integrating experience points progresses the game world. Not only do the character's grow in capability, but the game world adapts to that change by constantly providing them with 'just right!' challenges that match their level of power. In a spy game, this would take the form of new agents becoming experienced and then eventually creme-de-la-creme '00' agents with a license not only to kill, but to engage in massive, thrilling, over the top spy-thriller action.

But how necessary are XP? Are they a needed mechanic? How do we best implement them?

A lot depends on the sort of game system you play under. Some are very granular and have skills that go up regularly by very small amounts but have no levels (or do have levels but the skills still operate in a similar fashion). Some are less granular and have skills but increases are fewer and further between. Some have levels and levels bring skill gains, feats, new aspects, class advancements, you name it!

Experience points aren't necessary for short story arc games with a very limited number of playing sessions. In longer campaigns, it is almost a certainty that the game will benefit from characters who can grow and change. How you implement XP best would relate to the particular mechanics of your game system, but here are some general thoughts that you might consider...

• Tracking XP towards skill advancement or level advancement can be a simple thing with one broad award for a game sessions result which was arrived at fairly simply or can boil down to painstaking calculation of XP returns from each adventure goal, class action, item of treasure, etc. throughout the session. In the intensive form, there is often a task in partitioning off awards for each character and a lot of bookkeeping.
• XP can be determined in a very granular fashion with intense attention to what exactly and precisely was done or much more generally in terms of how the story progressed. You can guess which method is faster.
• XP can also be determined in a narrative-driven fashion by deciding just how many sessions you want to have between each advancement, either as a function of a pre-conceived advancement rate (for example 4 sessions per level in a level dependent game) or based on how many sessions you wish an entire campaign arc to fit in (50 weekly sessions to get to level 15, so 3 sessions to a level). In skill dependent systems, this would translate to how many skill-specific XP you might want to award in a session.
• You can decide (if you are scheduling advancements) whether they are 'everyone up at once' or staggered (if one class might need more XP to level or if some player is clearly better than the others at the table for instance).
• Ultimately, my experience has been (as someone who calculated painstaking individual awards and then later just made arbitrary decisions on when to level people up) that the end results are about the same, the only difference is a big one in how much bookkeeping you do. If the players never see what the GM does exactly, they are honestly none the wiser.

I have found, in my experience, that just deciding on a progress rate (in a level based game) and levelling up characters either all together or one or two sessions apart (to reward good play or show that some classes are harder to level in) is just as effective and feels the same to the players as doing all the painstaking bookkeeping. What's more, they never need know you did this. Or you can just tell them, if they won't fuss.

In a skill based game, if you know you want character skills (looked at on a per-skill basis) to go up at a particular rate, the same logic applies. Award increases (or skill tallies, if you need to let the players see the progress between skill level gains) in accordance roughly with that schedule and player gameplay.

In the long run, by doing advancement in a somewhat arbitrary but considered fashion, you eliminate bookkeeping for the GM and players, the outcome feels good at the table, and you can significantly reduce the amount of column-inches in game rules covering XP awards. (Which is simpler: XP totals for each monster, each encounter, each class or alignment correct action, some of these pooled then divided out to players and some calculated per player... or just deciding when it is time for a player to advance?)

Conclusion

Your XP concept only really needs to exist insofar as it lets the players feel progress and growth in the characters and the players can grow to allow their challenges to grow bigger, building tension and cresendo as the campaign reaches its climactic moments. As long as the players feel their PCs are developing (and the developments are fair in proportion to player choices of class or actions at the table), then the mechanics (or lack thereof) of XP awards are largely irrelevant.

Advice: Go with the less pain option, spend the time on stories and characters in your game rather than accounting.

Break Out the Shake Out!

According to the Author:

Shake Out! is a fast, fun and easy game of dice rolling and set collecting with just a hint of 'take that' to keep things raucous around the game table. This game is perfect for gamers looking for something fast to play between longer games, families looking for  something everyone can play together and anyone looking to get non-gamer friends to the table with you. So if you're looking for a good time, Break Out the Shake Out!

Playability: If you can comprehend what a straight is (several dice of sequential value), what N of a kind would be, and are able to tell that a 6-5-4 straight bumps a 4-3-2 straight, then you've got all the mental horsepower you need to play (if not to win).

Strategy: Being dice based and fast, it is not exactly Advanced Squad Leader with all the expansions. On the other hand, you do have decisions to make every moment of your turns, which come fairly quickly.

You have to look at what you have rolled, what 9 cards are up to be played upon, and decide on how many dice to reroll and whether to change strategy for the 2nd reroll. You also have to decide if you have dice that could go in multiple places, what is the least likely to get bumped and most likely to return you the best point value. So there is some strategy here, although it tends to be short horizon.

Fun: This game is pretty good. Everyone I know so far who has played it has thought it was pretty good. I did get to help playtest and I think I helped tighten up the scoring to make the game even more competitive than it already was. The playtest version had the fun down, but it seemed like it needed to compress the scoring ranges a bit.


Having seen the result, I'd say it worked. The noobs playing it on 'official release night' were loving it! Their game ended with a tense 10% margin of victory and saw one player get 5 of a kind 5s and be dethroned by 5 of a kind 6s on the very next roll! That's almost the most fun you can have with your clothes on! (Almost... but probably is the most fun you can have with a family friendly game!)

Value: It can fit in between other games or be a night-ender or a casual game while people chat at a party. That means it has replayability. I'll also say I've payed much more for games I've only played once then never played again (Civilization with the 384 plastic playing pieces, I'm looking squarely at you!).

If I had any one demerit to attach, it would be that I'm not a fan of the box, but Louis wanted to keep the price reasonable and knew that a deck and dice based game could be put in a small box people might have or even a small bag, so I can't fault him for that. He wanted a smaller box, but you'd be shocked to know what that was worth from Gamecrafters. So, the box is kinda lame, but the consolation is that helped keep the game price down. The dice are okay and the cards are good quality with excellent art and good icon presentation. Easy to read even if you are colour blind, which is a nice touch.

Player Count: The game is a lot of fun for 2, 3 or 4 people. Played by 2, its is a bit more oriented around the set collecting with less bumping. Played with 4, the bumping can get cutthroat and set collecting is a bit harder. It works well for any number though.

Overall: I liked it enough I've picked up some copies for several gaming groups I see occasionally. It'll do well on nights where we don't have enough for Junta, BSG, Struggle of Empires, or something heavy like that. It's a great before dinner game while the food is cooking away and you want something fast that won't delay dinner. I was impressed by Louis' decent mechanics and his good visual presentation. For a first published game, it has more value than a lot of others I've payed more for who were written by supposedly full-time game designers.

Recommendation: Give it a try if you want something light and fun for 2-4. You won't be disappointed.

And for the record, I wouldn't be championing this game if I thought it sucked. I am anxiously looking forward to Richard and Louis getting 'Non-Stop Safari' into publishable shape. I played the demo for it and it played well and the game theme is just hilarious!

Moulding Projects

1. Variants of vehicles I already have. (For example, an AA Missile System on a Jeep)
2. Various sorts of hatches, cargo containers, etc. for sci-fi gaming.
3. Several (as yet to be completed) workstation models for starship crew.
4. A trauma tube model along with an ambulance vehicle variant.
5. A quadrapedal 'mule' with casevac capability. 
6. Some kinda fencing for wild west games (if I can't find a good cheap scratchbuild option).
7. Some variant starship models for my Full Thrust and Stargate games.
8. A Stargate Iris. 

These things are all on my 'to do' list. We'll see how fast I can make progress through the list. 

Misadventures in Moulding

Well, today was an attempt to create a two-part mould for some cacti, a pour mould for some scenery bits, and a pour mould for some vehicle bits.

Lessons Learned:

• Glue your work down in the mould box. Didn't matter much with heavier originals - they just sat there. Medium weight/size originals moved a bit when the airy RTV glooped around them, but no catastrophes. Polystyrene... floats! Whatever the aeration process is for the RTV, it got the polystyrene lightweight original parts floating. I actually had to use a brass rod to hold one of the pieces on the bottom of the mould box. Remains to be seen if that mould is FUBAR.
  
•   Have enough RTV. I used all I had, 2 lbs, and I ran short by (I figure) about another pound or at least 3/4 of one. The only serious part of the shortage is a pour mould with incomplete coverage of one high protrusion and another where I can see a shadow through the mould to a higher piece. Both, I'm hoping, can be salvaged by a subsequent pour on top of more RTV, once I have some. It's amazing how much of that stuff you'll go through, even when you try to keep space around the parts as small as you can while retaining wall strength. Odd shaped parts is obviously a factor - height seems to be critical - if you've got a big box and one part makes you pour more, it is a lot more!
  
• Mix, mix, mix the RTV. I thougth I did that. But the last part of the RTV, even after I scraped the walls during mixing repeatedly, always seemed to come out whitish rather than yellow. I think the only way to beat this is a) have a little extra of the additive on hand in case you are short a bit and b) buy a silicon scraper to scrape the inside of the jar during mixing and dumping out. It'll end up being a sacrificial tool, but if it makes for better pours, that's okay.
  
• Two part moulds are tricky. I still have to see if the second half of the cacti mould will work out right. You have to align any and all pieces on an axis that you want to be the mould centerline and glue them there and that's a feat. Then you have to pour in such a way as to get under your pieces but not up the sides or overtop. Sounds easy but a wide mouth 1 pound jar of RTV is no super accurate pouring tool. I have a lot of respect for the effort at building multi-part (more than 2) moulds that people use for spin-casting complex metal figure.
  
• The plastic blisters for miniatures are an excellent source of small mould boxes. Any other reasonably leak proof plastic container is another good choice - I've repurposed a plastic box from a 12 of Ferro Rocher chocolates as well as two old disposable tuperware containers. Only one warning: Rounded corners and trying to get pieces close to the edge to use minimal RTV without tearing are mutually oppositional. 

We'll see how this batch turns out. I've got 5 pounds of Quick Set from Alumalite coming and another pound of HS-III for some stuff I have with undercuts.

Once I finish the current batch of moulds, I'll try to pour and see what sorts of results I get. One of the items is a thin modern desk... I look forward to trying to get casts of that out of the mould without damaging the piece or the mould....

I also need to get some more dental plaster. My last set of casting experiments in plaster (some successful, some not - the tinfoil over a die-cast car to make a mould shell might work in Hot Wheels scale, but not in 28mm... the plaster is heavy enough to distory the tinfoil shell even when supported by sand or ballast. But Plaster works great as a replacement for resin for vehicles, especially if you can create mould voids using blocks. It's strong enough you don't need to mould an entire brick out of it (a shell will do) and takes detail just about as well as resin.

More as the next set of experiments are attempted....