Back Into the Fray

Last Friday, we did another playtest of TA/TG. It went well but I felt it dragged in spots. Here's some notes from what went down:

I made a point to put the characters (all 1st level at this time) into a really tough fight that might've dropped a typical 1st level party. One did get dropped (which illuminated a couple of other issues I've noted below) and the party all rolled terribly. They made it through the encounter but just barely. I felt this was important because I didn't know how much more powerful characters in TA/TG were compared to DCC. The answer? They're roughly the same. I wouldn't say it's a 1:1 sort of thing. But a similar party of characters in DCC would've had about the same amount of difficulty with the encounter as the TA/TG group had.
Leveling up was a love-fest. Everyone liked it. A couple of options were identified that deserved another look-through. But everyone commented on how simple and awesome gaining a level in TA/TG was. I would say this was a light-bulb moment. After leveling up their party, all the players "got it". It was fun, made sense and had that addictive quality to it that I was hoping for.
TA/TG really plays like DCC with a few twists. Not all the twists will be to everyone's tastes. But none of them make it patently unrecognizable as DCC. I like that and think it helps create an enjoyable experience.
Guns were awesome. A little odd because the players rolled so poorly with them. But they worked very nicely.

The absence of magic in the party was pretty obvious. We're going to want the Theorist sooner, rather than later. And I'm not sure how throwing a spell-slinger in there will affect the party's efficacy.
Getting dropped failed to pass the Awesome test. I'd also left out a couple of pertinent details about getting dropped that I was publicly kicking myself for not being able to find. Better that I find those things now.

Fear turned out to be fearful. One character nearly killed herself from fright. I tried to explain how it should (in theory) get better as the party increases in experience but I did have to go back and massage those rules a bit. I don't mind there being a lethal element. But players shouldn't get whooped too badly by one bad roll.
When players roll poorly and monsters follow suit, combat can really drag. I think that's true for any edition of "the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game". And it's very true here as well. This inspired me to go dust off a chart I've been using as a DM for decades to spice up dull encounters. I'll be adding this to TA/TG.

Land of Phantoms