JVT Workshop

Friday, 30 June 2023

Pathfinder: Black Fang's Lair II

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The reefclaw decides to be greedy, leaving Juris bleeding out on the far bank as it appears right beside the others on the opposite shore. The dice roll luck makes this a pretty tough foe but it is eventually laid low by the team. Luckily Juris manages to stabilize himself during this, and that the reefclaw doesn't have friends. Mom tries swim across next and gets half way before failing her swim roll, sinking down into the deep.

I follow after but have a rope tied to me with Rose tying the opposite end to the pillar. Warriors are good swimmers apparently, but instead of going across I dive down and get our thief back to the surface before we both get to the other side and anchor the rope to make for easier crossing. Juris is revived and among the reefclaw's treasures is a +1 long sword of dragon slaying. Beaten up by the reefclaw, we return to the goblin king and return his toy. Luckily he is a goblin of his word and even lets us rest there to recover before advancing to the crypt section guarded by skeletons.

Even the magic sword is almost useless against these (they get a flat -5 resistance to non-blunt damage) but good thing Rose's cleric ability and Juris' cone of fire type spell is enough to take down the skelesquad, leaving the way open to a bigger chamber where Black Fang, a baby black dragon, awaits. Juris is hesitant to kill a baby but the dragon has no such qualms about killing us, striking me down with its first breath attack and flying right up to the party! Juris then remembers the goblin king mentioning something about the belly being the weak point and he and mom slam the dragon while Rose gets me back up. With a mighty (critical) swing the dragon slaying sword pierces Black Fang deeply and then... the dragon flees (aka DL decides not to kill us level 1 noobs LOL), leaving its small treasure horde and earning us the respect and monetary reward from the town. Introductory adventure complete!

Thursday, 29 June 2023

Pathfinder: Black Fang's Lair

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Something's been munching on the local livestock, and after the locals found a black fang left in one of their sheep carcasses hire a (pre-made) party to track down and get rid of this creature before it moves up to killing people. Thus the team formed of a warrior (me), cleric (Rose), thief (mom), and wizard (Juris) heads to a nearby cave under the watchful eye of the dungeon master (DL).

Two drunk goblins attack the team and die while Juris examines the corroded stone statue outside, and as the team moves in mom collects a healing potion from their refuse pile. Nearby Rose gains a blessing from a magical fountain before arriving at the goblin leader's chamber, where four of his minions squabble over something. Rose convinces the team to try talk to them first (hard for me to play neutral good, I wanted to get the drop on them!), and the leader is pleased that this shut up his minions.

He says he'll grant the team passage deeper in if they first find the toy stolen by his sister-brother (I guess these are very woke goblins) who ran off to the East. The team agree and head off in that direction, finding a room with a tempting altar upon which sits a magic gem. Before Juris can walk in to examine the pillars I step forward and throw a dead lizard looted from the drunk goblins at the altar, setting off a massive inferno trap which harms no one.

Rose manages to read the runes on the wall which is a version of "only the penitent man may pass" and mom crawls low beneath the fire to nab the gem. The team then continue into a heavily webbed corridor where they slay a giant spider feasting on the king's sister-brother and retrieve the toy but instead of backtracking opt to explore further, where Juris touches a pillar that gives him temporary waterbreathing and inspires him to swim across an underground river to reach something shiny on the other side. Instead, upon making it to the opposite bank he encounters a reefclaw (lobster man thing) which rolls a critical and downs him there, away from the others!

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Skyrim: Adventure Game (Board Game) - The Cult

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Twenty five years have passed with DL becoming a blacksmith in Markarth, Sky becoming a fixer in Rifter, Rose becoming an apothecary in Falkreath and mom taking up a courier job in Hjaalmarch. Now weaker than ever (pretty cool mechanic), they must be extra cautious to avoid the Thalmor patrols on the roads (lousy mechanic) as once again their cover lives are examined by the authorities. Sky gets info from the thieves guild that this round of inquisition is stemming from the unhappy Dunmer refugees from Morrowind who have even concocted a plot to assassinate High King Torygg! Alas, they are too late to warn the king who is slain by Ulfric Stormcloak at Solitude's Blue Palace and instead are drafted into opposing sides of the quickly brewing civil war: DL and Sky for the Stormcloaks, mom and Rose for the Imperials.

When Ulfric's execution is prevented by the arrival of a dragon, each side is tasked with trying to slay the great wyrms but while DL and Sky do that to collect lots of powerful dragon bone artifacts, Rose and mom assist the Imperials in gaining dominance over the province and gaining a windfall in wealth. Despite the head to head, they collectively discover it is actually a cult to Boethiah that is behind the latest events and access their hidden temple through a series of skill checks (super cool) and learn of the cults Dunmer master, Oviron.

While mom is tricked by the daedric prince Sanguine to ransack Windhelm, DL recruits deranged crusader Giara to the cause while Rose and Sky battle the entire graveyard of Morthal where Rose becomes a Thane and makes friends with "Edward" the vampire (we just call him that, but he makes an amazing summon in battle). Their new allies tell them of Oviron's location at Hrothgar, and so the entire team heads there beating down cultists on the way (need to keep their numbers down) and face Oviron and his cronies. Giara dies in battle but Oviron escapes through an oblivion gate. Not willing to let their prey escape, the team jump in to pursue him just as the gate closes in on itself... which is the end of the campaign.

An excellent finale with some great fights. I'm not convinced by the cultists you have to kill / Thalmor you have to evade mechanic though because they always move towards the active player, which means most of the time they're just walking in circles. The random monsters that just show up and go for cities are more fun, and don't hang around like a bad smell like those guys do.

Tuesday, 27 June 2023

Skyrim: Adventure Game (Board Game) - The Traitor

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Now officially on the run, the team decide to split up and go to their various contacts for assistance: DL helps a suicidal bard get through some Hagravens, mom helps the Black Briars torch their opposition in Riften, Rose helps some cannibals defeat some vampires (huh?) and Sky helps some Talos worshippers, now illegal due to the White-Gold Concordat, obtain his helm from a crypt. Each of them indicate that there's a traitor in the Blades, but before they can work out who it is they are invited to a meeting by the local Blade grandmaster. Luckily they arrive late, as they find everyone else dead. By process of elimination, the only one whose body they don't find among the dead is the traitor.

As Thalmor agents begin becoming more and more prevalent, the team split up to go undercover again while still trying to glean information about Moivva's whereabouts. Rose does this by peacefully rebuilding Rorikstead and acting as a healer, mom becomes a performing artist (and pickpocket) in Solitude, and Sky listens to the daedric prince Mephala in trying to assassinate a local Jarl in exchange for information - but he fails in this task. DL goes the completely opposite way and tries to face Mephala on her own plane of Oblivion where she takes his likeness. That does not go well at all and DL ends up trapped in Oblivion for a long, long time (which is a seriously terrible design decision because its basically, on your turn roll 3 "6"s on a 3D6 to continue playing, and that's not fun at all).

Somehow, he manages it eventually while the other three simply keep the random events at bay (its a long session) but at least by that time they have the location of Moivva. The trio fight her, her goons and the traitorous Blade in a pretty easy battle and end up executing her. With sweet vengeance dished out, the four decide to split up again to continue hiding from the Thalmor in semi-retirement.

For some reason all the combats in these particular chapters was really boring / easy. Possibly because we leveled up so much while DL was stuck in Oblivion (can't complete mission without all players being at X location).

Monday, 26 June 2023

Skyrim: Adventure Game (Board Game) - The Blades

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The "Blades", undercover special forces of the Emperor are present everywhere - even during the great war. In the Northern lands of Skyrim, mom (a sneaky Khajiit) eludes a mercenary squad sent after her while Rose (a magus Altmer) barely escapes arrest as DL (sword wielding Imperial) defeats the guardsmen that held her custody (in a really tough fight to solo). Yazish the orc helps them escape to Whiterun where Sky (Me, a sneaky Nord: because I play how I played in the PC game) is helping to defend against some wandering Dremora.

While Yazish is slain in this battle, he asks Rose to help his clan mates near Riften so she and DL go there and free their camp form a Nordic siege but when they decline to assist in helping the Orsimer to attack Riften the pair are thrown into a pit leading to an underground Dwemer City! At the same time Mom and Sky are in a different Dwemer city, laying a trap for those mercenaries still on her tail. Using an unstable dwemer device, Sky explodes them all and they find clues on who is hunting them: a khajiit named Moivva Karnai.

M'aiq thinks you need some skooma.

When all four return top side they meet at their rally point and using the information gained raid Moivva's hideout at Dawnstar for hard evidence of a massive conspiracy which they take to Solitude to present to the High King. Alas, instead of listening to their case he instead delivers the bad news: the war is over. The White-Gold concordat is signed. He tosses them each a bag of gold and tells them to go into hiding.

Pretty cool start with varying degrees of difficulty, though it did take people awhile to get that magic armor only protects against magic, heavy armor only protects against heavy attacks, and light armor only protects against light attacks. Yes, so the little dagger that only does light attacks will cut right through your +5 magical heavy plate of bullshitery. While the higher level enemies stack armor of each type to make them "tough", the players will almost always have at least one weakness.

Party Time: RPG Adventures

Just a place for me to collate RPG adventures with my team. :)

More than Nothing (with me as GM)
Chapter 0 - The System (4 May 2026)
Chapter 1 - The Goat Getters (5 May 2026)
Chapter 2 - The First Village (6 May 2026)
Chapter 3 - Rou the Beheader (12 May 2026)
Chapter 4 - The Great Mine (13 May 2026)
Chapter 5 - The Axolotl (14 May 2026)
Chapter 6 - Those Thieving Teens (28 May 2026)
Chapter 7 - Partopian Police (31 May 2026)
Chapter 8 - Black Vale Expedition (2 June 2026)
Chapter 9 - Back to Partopia (3 June 2026)
Chapter 10 - Bad Allies (4 June 2026)
Chapter 11 - A Tale of Creatures (9 June 2026)
Chapter 12 - Finding Warmth (10 June 2026)

Pathfinder (with DL as GM)
Chapter 1 - Black Fang's Lair (29 June 2023)
Chapter 2 - Black Fang's Lair II (30 June 2023)
Chapter 3 - The Ruins of Raven's Watch (5 July 2023)
Chapter 4 - The Ruins of Raven's Watch II (6 July 2023)
Chapter 5 - The Swallowtail Festival (3 September 2023)
Chapter 6 - The Glassworks (24 October 2023)
Chapter 7 - Goblin Interrupted (7 November 2023)
Chapter 8 - Thistletop (18 November 2023)
Chapter 9 - Thistlemiddle (19 November 2023)
Chapter 10 - Thistlebottom (1 December 2023)
Chapter 11 - Smells like Murder! (8 May 2024)
Chapter 12 - The Haunted Manor (22 May 2024)
Chapter 13 - Missing in Magnimar (31 May 2024)
Chapter 14 - The Black Arrows (2 Sep 2024)
Chapter 15 - The Real Ogres (9 Sep 2024)
Chapter 16 - Wet Skull (17 Sep 2024)
Chapter 17 - The Best Type of Friend (3 Nov 2024)
Chapter 18 - Lamatar (6 Nov 2024)
Chapter 19 - The Raiders of Sandpoint (13 Aug 2025)
Chapter 20 - Uwu and the Joe Gang (10 Sep 2025)
Chapter 21 - Vault No. 3 (11 Sep 2025)
Chapter 22 - Feast at Ravenmoor (15 Sep 2025)
Chapter 23 - The Shoanti Squad (28 Oct 2025)
Chapter 24 - The ones at Storval (29 Oct 2025)
Chapter 25 - Climbing up the Back Door (1 Nov 2025)
Chapter 26 - The Shining Child (16 Nov 2025)
Chapter 27 - The Headless Child (17 Nov 2025)
Chapter 28 - The Black Tower (2 Dec 2025)
Chapter 29 - Can't Touch This (27 Feb 2026)
Chapter 30 - The Flying Giant (2 Mar 2026)

The Heavy Standard (with me as GM)
Chapter 0 - The System (5 May 2025)
Chapter 1 - The 555 (6 May 2025)
Chapter 2 - The Green Swamp (7 May 2025)
Chapter 3 - The Forest Fire (8 May 2025)
Chapter 4 - The Fool's March (9 May 2025)
Chapter 5 - The Whitelands (10 May 2025)
Chapter 6 - The Daggerdowns (11 May 2025)
Chapter 7 - The Painted City (12 May 2025)
Chapter 9 - The Sword of Cats (13 May 2025)
Chapter 10 - The Waiting Curse (14 May 2025)
Chapter 11 - The Standing Emperor (15 May 2025)
Chapter 12 - The Black Dog (17 May 2025)

The Pancake Adventure (with me as GM, one shot - 5 March 2025)

Blades in the Heart (with me as GM)
Chapter 13 - Kicking the Bank (16 June 2024)
Chapter 14 - The Lord of Nature (17 June 2024)
Chapter 15 - Ritual Smashing (18 June 2024)
Chapter 16 - The Old North Port (19 June 2024)
Chapter 17 - The Pink Fart (2 July 2024)
Chapter 18 - Gluttony and Pestilence (3 July 2024)
Chapter 19 - Beyond the Barrier (4 July 2024)
Chapter 20 - A Powerful Alliance (15 Aug 2024)
Chapter 21 - GTFO (16 Aug 2024)
Chapter 22 - The Emperor (17 Aug 2024)

Gloomhaven (Digital)
Chapter 1 - Black Barrow Lair (1 July 2023)
Chapter 2 - Inox Warehouse of the Damned (3 July 2023)
Chapter 3 - The Ruinous Toxic Well (4 July 2023)
Chapter 4 - Hail to the Void (1 August 2023)
Chapter 5 - Jekserah's Corruption (9 September 2023)
Chapter 6 - The Deep Sh*t Ruins (6 November 2023)
Chapter 7 - Treasure and the Trials of the Terrible Turd Tunnels (30 Nov 2023)
Chapter 8 - Unlocking the Sun (15 December 2023)
Chapter 9 - Voice of the Mountain (23 May 2024)

Skyrim: Adventure Game
Chapter 1 - The Blades
Chapter 2 - The Traitor
Chapter 3 - The Cult

Sunday, 25 June 2023

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Where ideas go to die?

Hell seems like the only logical place to go after the last Saints Row, and that's exactly where you get to visit as either Gat or Kinzie who are on a mission to save their abducted boss from Satan. Gat has some nice unique melee finishers and the system of super powers from IV makes a return here - only this time they are (un)holy abilities instead of glitching the system. The game is super short though and has cut down on many things.

There's a fewer variety of vehicles (which is ok since your super powers make them moot), almost all the citizens just look like naked ashen husks, there is no customization clothing wise and there are no radio stations. Before you even control a fourth of the map via the ever crazy distraction events you will already be invited to do the finale. Still fun, but it feels like an afternote to the series, which is probably why the option of "resetting the universe" as one of the endings is on offer and why there's a reboot of the franchise out there now.