Skip to main content

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:

The Good


  • 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 Bad


  • 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.


The Ugly


  • 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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back on the Rack

It's been a long time. But I'm still here. Still working on stuff. Over the last few months, here's what I've been up to. I took a brief hiatus around the end of last year and the start of this year. The holidays are always busy. And work was busy as well. Work's really continued to be busy. I consider that a good thing but it does hamper my ability to devote time to writing. During this hiatus, I took the time to explore what the tabletop RPG community had been up to. I read a number of books, played in some games, ran some games, funded some Kickstarters -- all that stuff I enjoy doing when I'm not the "Transylvania Guy". This is generally a time when I collect ideas. It was helpful when I came back from hiatus to look at Transylvanian Adventures  again with fresh eyes. I've been in contact with a potential co-author for TA . He's very interested and a legit writer to boot. Because he's legit, his schedule is just as crazy as mine...
32 comments
Read more

Happy Halloween

Don't thank me. Thank Deadstop. Here to add some treat to your holiday are some of Dr. Frankenstein's prized creations with a few tricks up their sleeve. This is the first entry in the monsters section of The Hanging Judge's Guide to Transylvania . Enjoy. And don't forget to leave the lights on when you go to sleep. Transylvanian Adventures' Abominations
9 comments
Read more

Only Mostly Dead

Well, that went by quickly. It's been a couple of very challenging months here. I've been able to dive into TA sporadically. But it's not uncommon at this point for my work hours to be 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. or later. So time has been at a premium the last few months. Here's a brief update to remind everybody that I am still, in fact, working on this. NTRPG I did not make it. I was on a plane with my 7-year-old and 5-year-old to fly them to the grandparents. I was optimistic that this would free up some time for the book but it didn't work out that way. As far as the book, here's where it stands. The Good I'm about a third of the way through re-writing the monsters. The new format works fairly well for me and exists in some strange place in between DCC RPG , 13th Age, and Dungeon World . As part of the Monsters section, I'm working on the Advanced Rule Options as well. This where the infamous "cleavage rule" joins us. The prima...
8 comments
Read more