The Pavis and Big Rubble group, play report/notes. Session Six.
This will again be a brief recap, and some notes about what seems to be working for me and what has not worked for me as Game Master at the end. See also Mr. Mann's Purposeful Session Reports, and Jenx Hobby Best Practices.
I had a few more players today, I was able to take care of Sarorik's (H.) POW gain roll from a few sessions back, when he demoralized a Cave Troll with a spell. No success for the PC, but it was finished. I recapped the last few sessions for Sarorik and Sequester.
Jantos Redspear (B.R.), Arax (C.), Bala (P.), Sequester (T.) and Sarorik (H.) all met at Homar's Fish before heading into Bad Side to find out more intelligence about the gang that attacked the Pavis Temple.
The party wrangled a bit and decided to go to Bad Side ASAP. Sequester knew how to find the Underground Orlanthi temple, and the party hoped he'd learn something from them. I used some percentile dice as an Oracle, RQ 2 style (low is good, high not good). Sequester's attempt to gather information was a critical success.
I told the Players that the gang was about 13-15 people strong, and they hung out a seedy Bad Side Tavern, One eyed Joh's. The PC's headed into One eyed Joh's and began buying drinks for all. The Players boasted in an attempt to draw out the gang into giving information.
A gang member tripped up and revealed some information that made it obvious who the gang was (but not why they had dressed as Darkness cultists, or who might have hired them). Overplaying their hand the PC's were almost drawn into a fistfight. They retreated to watch the entrance of One Eyed Joh's to see where the gang left for.
A series of tracking rolls later (and a critical success by Jantos) led the PC's into the Big Rubble after the gang. Jantos spotted their hideout and the PC's returned in the night to Homar's Fish, where they waited to tell the person who hired them, Fleeter Neem (priest of Pavis).
After Fleeter Neem arrived and they gave him all the information they had he offered to have them lead a group of mercenaries into Big Rubble to attack the gang. Bala asked for a day to consider the offer before accepting and Fleeter Neem left.
Bala admitted to the others that he was possibly paranoid, but he couldn't understand why Fleeter Neem wanted an attack on the gang without knowing who had hired them. A discussion ensued and the Characters decided that there were no deeper motives they should be concerned about. The next session they would accept Fleeter Neem's offer and lead an attack.
What has worked over time: 1) Continuing to have a fluid cast (without asking where a PC had been for while) worked really well. This resembles in no small part Arcade gaming as described here by Mr. Mann (Arcade gaming). 2) Using percentile dice as an Oracle helped me to either give bad luck or good luck to the Players as the dice dictated. 3) Stayed out of Intraparty discussions except to add information or remind people of key information their PC knows. 4) Asking people questions when necessary to clarify what exactly they were doing.
What hasn't worked over time: 1) Trying to meet with a whole group every session (we would be on session three right now). 2) Trying to play longer than about two hours. 3) Checking everyone's character sheet's to see that the exact amount of Lunars is flowing through their hands. 4) Having a very ridged plan for each session. 5) Failing to ask clarifying questions when necessary of the players. 6) Failing to provide recaps and remind people of key information.
Shout out to Mr. Mann for his blog posts, and to Jenx for his in Gorgon Bones.