HEROIX 10-28-26 "Party House of Peril"
Last Wednesday marked the beginning of the inaugural HEROIX: Legendepic in the World of Rem campaign. We were delayed by a week due to a vexing migraine on my part last Wednesday and I will admit to having reservations about a few things as a result of that combined with other factors.
This game has two players and they are very enthusiastic about the game itself. They have skimmed an earlier version of the rules which is appropriate but I wish at least one of them would give it a thorough read so as to hold me accountable, kind of, and just have a general understanding of things. It's ok - They trust me to run fairly and they just arent sweating the small stuff and I see the value in that, but I have adopted a policy of transparent. All procedures are known knowns or known unknowns. Wherever it can be explained without sacrificing simulation fidelity or providing a major advantage against mystery, I explain what I am doing and how it works. Simply put: I want the players to understand the game.
Onboarding players in a high context setting is not as difficult as I had thought. There are sometimes assumptions that need to be corrected and there will be more yet but it wasnt nearly the problem I thought it would be, I just explain the context the players would have as it arises.
Last week, during my migraine episode, I was very in my head about the relative put-togetheredness of my life versus the players'. I felt like a kid visiting a classmate's house and seeing a spiral staircase and immaculate spotlessness again. This was in my head completely. These guys are my buddies and they like me, regardless of if I am on Disability or whatever. We're equals.
We sat down, did some housekeeping about where we were last time, minor corrections or further explanations of certain things I forgot or wasnt clear on last time. They had a better recall than I did and we were able to start quickly.
The Game
Dramatis Personae
Alen as Pimp Chavez - Specialist
Starting spell: Clipping (Pass through walls)
Max as Onion Bhaji - Specialist
Starting spell: Wink Away (Death spell)
Summary of events
Our Heroes have just ascended from Apprentices in the Hero Guild of Gluck and it is their first day as Journeymen Heroes. They meet their Handler, a Master in the Guild, named Greyheart Loveless. He is known as the Drakeslayer, for singlehandedly slaying a Drake, but it cost him dearly for he is now disfigured and fused into his scorched armor by such severe burns that to remove the plate would risk his life.
Greyheart is a no-nonsense hardass who silently grieves at the start of each day, taking care to read the names of each fallen Journeyman who died under his command. He explains to our intrepid newcomers that they have achieved their new rank due to a vacancy. As there have been no new Masters in about twenty years, the way most seats for the position of Journeyman open up is as a result of casualties. Master Loveless emphasises this to the pair before they set off on their first assignment and another Master, a Diminuon (small people) named Dwain Scot, is told off by Greyheart when he walks by. Dwain wiggles his eyebrows at Onion and Pimp, gesturing with his chin for them to follow but they ignore him, choosing to trust their Master's distaste for Master Scot.
Their mission is to investigate the appearance of a statue that appeared in a basement of a home in the northwest corner of Deertongue, near Fishbone. It is suspected to be the result of the Dawning (Strange prehistoric ruins, artefacts and other lost remnants of the past began appearing about 300 years ago and in recent times they have been more and more common), reported to the Guild by Salaman Slorn as a Good Samaritan Aid request. Initially, this job was considered low priority and it stayed awaiting assignment for some time, until Greyheart took an interest in it and pushed it up the list.
The statue happened to be located at a notorious Party House, where there is always have some measure of debauchery occuring. In order to get in, the duo would have to pass a vibe check.
Here is a rough summary of events:
Onion Bhaji and Pimp Chavez rock up to the Party House in Deertongue.
They present a bottle of wine to the bouncer to be let in. He accepts happily.
They find Salaman Slorn, who is looking for Ambroz and Pyrate, friends who went into the basement to screw around and have gone MIA.
Onion and Pimp fuck around with the statue for a long time and I overemphasize the tits so they get distracted for a while.
They finally put blood to the scalpel and open the way into the dungeon.
They come to realize that they have no light so they go up and find a standing lamp to take downstairs.
Sloppy the dwarf is using it to support himself so they give him more beer and teach him to sit down and drink beer.
They go back down with the lamp.
They explore for a while, getting the lay of the main corridor of the first floor
They meet a Living Gas but beat it easily.
They find some money in an old reception room but didn't go into the doors up the hall past it
They go down the main hall again, this time exploring the adjoining hallway past the stairs - they decided to save the stairs for later
They meet some Eggrunts who have a friendly response. Combat is avoided.
They came across a crack in the wall and heard whimpering from the other side, but are not able to confirm it is one of the missing partygoers.
They explore some more, finding a room that smells like piss. It is full of dead dogs and occupied by Living Gas but they beat this one well.
They go into the next room and find an abandoned incubation chamber for the Eggrunts... a patrol of Eggrunts come down the hall, upset that their unborn siblings have been disturbed.
A fight ensues and the party suffers a lot of damage.
Pimp Chavez smears the yolk of a defeated eggrunt on his face and convincingly scares the rest off.
Now, the duo decide to leave, having suffered some serious injuries but the way is blocked by two Snounds - dogs with snake heads and paralytic venom.
They throw a grenade to defeat the snounds, but their plan quickly goes south... the fragbomb is a dud!
Onion is bit by a Snound and dies.
Pimp dispatches the foes and flees without Onion's body.
Pimp returns to Hero Headquarters. He is dressed down by Greyheart Loveless and now rests in the Hero HQ infirmary to recover.
Reflections
The game was solid and a great deal of fun. We were howling when the fragbomb failed. Certain issues with the way I have been running morale have become apparent, which should be fixed by next game - I have just been using the reaction table but a neutral result has been difficult to adjudicate.
Oldhawkeyes, the genius behind Unturned Hovelhad a great idea of doing a morale reaction table based on each cause for a check, which is a potential option to explore. Although it adds a tad more overhead and potential lookup it is nothing unacceptable. I think I will try that and if it doesnt work well then I will simple use a binary morale result of hold or retreat/surrender.
Aside from the morale bugbear, the game was a blast and I am eager to play more!! I got into an oracular flow, especially during the lightly sketched house party going on above the dungeon.
The other tweak I am considering is minor adjustments to Specialists, all starting with a chance for Magical Inspiration and a Magic Touched skill, instead of making it a choice between starting with a Spell or the Magic Touch. This comes after the decision to allow POW investment into a Specialist's Magic Touched skill — Such a crucial feature should be available to all Specialists, I say.
The last thing to note is the difference of energy in playing IRL. One can get up, move around, and stay engaged. Funny voices arent trimmed by Discord audio filtering. Gesticulations are more meaningful. The mapping game is more intact, with the potential for errors on the part of the mapper, although I try to be careful of which mistakes I allow, based on what the characters experience, and let the mistakes mostly derive from assumptions instead of simple miscommunications.
I wonder what became of Onion's body and the disappeared partygoers... Hohoho, we will see, won't we?