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Powder, Gears, and Blessed Steam - A WHF Engineering Quest

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DragonParadox said:
We are in a forest fighting beastmen. If we do not win here we will simply die. Margret does not have the skills to make it out alive if the battle goes badly hence it makes sense to take the high risk option, because she is dead anyway otherwise, it just takes slightly longer.
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I can turn the argument around and say that even if we win it, we are probably badly wounded, which is as good as dead, especially if we lose limbs.
If fire support doesn't work, the chances of running away are definitely still greater than getting into melee range of a minotaur when MC is a 16 year old engineer girl who only has training to run.
 
T.T said:
I can turn the argument around and say that even if we win it, we are probably badly wounded, which is as good as dead, especially if we lose limbs.
If fire support doesn't work, the chances of running away are definitely still greater than getting into melee range of a minotaur when MC is a 16 year old engineer girl who only has training to run.
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Being wounded is better than being dead by definition unless we lose all our limbs I guess, but that sounds unlikely compared to us not being able to make it out of the woods alive when we have no skills for it.
 
T.T said:
Apart from that, if I had known beforehand that we would skip the tutorial fight and go straight to the boss fight, I would have been against this action. What would have happened if we went alone? Where are the 3 Ungor spearmen that I expected as enemies? If we do this ever again (and I'm not sure we should), we will need more preparation time. (of course this only matters if we get out of here in one piece)
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A note on this: Tutorial styled content isn't something I'm going to particularly do even for some of the more weird systems I have in mind as we progress deeper into the quest, especially if it involves danger.

This was a pretty luck dependent action. This could've been hunting small packs of scattered beastmen in fives and tens or it could've been stumbling into a full warherd several hundred strong depending on the dice involved. The Forest of Shadows, and by extension Ostland, is just that level of dangerous. I won't pull punches if the setting's timeline, plot threads, or dice decide to throw them because it both doesn't fit the setting and I think doing so would rob you the players of moments that kind of define character arcs and really make stories.
 
[X] Charge the bejeweled Minotaur.

I am assuming that if shooting the minotaur from a distance is not one of the default options is because we are too far away or we don't have a good angle

So going with the Default option...
 
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adwarf said:
A note on this: Tutorial styled content isn't something I'm going to particularly do even for some of the more weird systems I have in mind as we progress deeper into the quest, especially if it involves danger.

This was a pretty luck dependent action. This could've been hunting small packs of scattered beastmen in fives and tens or it could've been stumbling into a full warherd several hundred strong depending on the dice involved. The Forest of Shadows, and by extension Ostland, is just that level of dangerous. I won't pull punches if the setting's timeline, plot threads, or dice decide to throw them because it both doesn't fit the setting and I think doing so would rob you the players of moments that kind of define character arcs and really make stories.
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I understand your approach now and as a reader I agree 100%, good stories come from challenges.
It's just a little tricky when dice are involved.
As a player, I don't want a close fight or even a fair fight, I always feel like I've made a mistake when I have to rely on luck.
If we are in a situation that exceeds our abilities and try to save the day by doing something really heroic, that can work in a story.
However, if you then roll the dice on it you will probably find that for every successful hero there are 100 dead people who tried it.
It would be a sad end to the quest, as would any debuff we otherwise carry with us and greatly reduce our chances of success at anything.
As I said, I don't really see a good option in this matter and I thought before the hunt that we would just be another shooter in this fight and not try to save the fight despite our lack of skills.
Why should the MC succeed at this as a six-year-old engineer with no combat experience or training?
The dice will probably give an answer.

Other than that it's really well written and very exciting, I just wish our chances were better.
 
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Hey @adwarf , does hanging back and shooting into Alric's fight with the Minotaur impose any penalties on our roll, or does its size prevent that?

Likewise, is charging it just a normal shooting roll, or would we be rolling something else?
 
Derek58 said:
Hey @adwarf , does hanging back and shooting into Alric's fight with the Minotaur impose any penalties on our roll, or does its size prevent that?

Likewise, is charging it just a normal shooting roll, or would we be rolling something else?
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Shooting at it from a distance won't incur any penalties its just if you fail particularly badly you may shoot Alric in the process. As for rolls during the charge: You'd be rolling the same thing you did to shoot the shaman, Gromdottir is light and small enough to be reasonably used in that kind of close combat where you don't (and can't) block or parry at least.
 
adwarf said:
Shooting at it from a distance won't incur any penalties its just if you fail particularly badly you may shoot Alric in the process. As for rolls during the charge: You'd be rolling the same thing you did to shoot the shaman, Gromdottir is light and small enough to be reasonably used in that kind of close combat where you don't (and can't) block or parry at least.
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Oh is that the only difference? Well if we fail particularly badly at charging a minotaur Margret is dead so the difference is moot and if we remain at a distance we might get a second shot.

[X] Hang back and shoot at the bejewled minotaur
 
adwarf said:
Shooting at it from a distance won't incur any penalties its just if you fail particularly badly you may shoot Alric in the process. As for rolls during the charge: You'd be rolling the same thing you did to shoot the shaman, Gromdottir is light and small enough to be reasonably used in that kind of close combat where you don't (and can't) block or parry at least.
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Gotcha.

[X] Hang back and shoot at the bejewled minotaur

That's enough to convince me to switch.
 
adwarf said:
Shooting at it from a distance won't incur any penalties its just if you fail particularly badly you may shoot Alric in the process. As for rolls during the charge: You'd be rolling the same thing you did to shoot the shaman, Gromdottir is light and small enough to be reasonably used in that kind of close combat where you don't (and can't) block or parry at least.
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Will charging in inflict any penalties on the Minotaur/bonuses for Alric? If so, I still think our odds of success, and thus survival, are better if we charge in.
 
It might be better if we prevent reinforcement instead. Because if the boss dies that might only be a captain will still not prevent us being surrounded and killed off. They are not orks.

If we loose an arm it's basically end of our career.

[X] Move to intercept one of the roars moving towards the battlefield.
 
Don't panik just yet about this whole encounter, anyway. We have like, 40 dudes numerical advantage atm. Unless beastmen reinforcements are particularly dire, we'll prolly live.
 
Prospalz said:
Don't panik just yet about this whole encounter, anyway. We have like, 40 dudes numerical advantage atm. Unless beastmen reinforcements are particularly dire, we'll prolly live.
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Unfortunately, you're underestimating the importance of morale here. All those bodies won't do us any good if they focus more on fleeing than killing, except maybe as distractions. With the number of casualties the Road Wardens have suffered so far, they probably aren't far from breaking.
 
Hunter531 said:
Unfortunately, you're underestimating the importance of morale here. All those bodies won't do us any good if they focus more on fleeing than killing, except maybe as distractions. With the number of casualties the Road Wardens have suffered so far, they probably aren't far from breaking.
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That's why I primarily worry about Alric dying in full view of his entire outfit, lol. They aren't fleeing yet, and that is prolly the most important thing to stop them from fleeing.

Unless the reinforcement that is coming is, like, Jabberslythe or a Ghorgon, or another full-sized baby horde-herd, but then we are fucking anyway and there is no need to stress regardless.
 
adwarf said:
This was a pretty luck dependent action. This could've been hunting small packs of scattered beastmen in fives and tens or it could've been stumbling into a full warherd several hundred strong depending on the dice involved. The Forest of Shadows, and by extension Ostland, is just that level of dangerous. I won't pull punches if the setting's timeline, plot threads, or dice decide to throw them because it both doesn't fit the setting and I think doing so would rob you the players of moments that kind of define character arcs and really make stories.
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Respectfully I don't think the level of risk was communicated as well as it could have been, not in what information was conveyed but in how it was presented. The option was placed right next to one that was more suicide attempt than reasonable idea. As such, the option seemed a whole lot safer than it truly was. It's the same psychological principle behind why high-end restaurants have ridiculously overpriced items on their menus to get people to buy merely overpriced food.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think you were trying to con us or anything. It's just how things worked out. Still, next time maybe include the dangerous tag on the suboption or have a "Very Dangerous" tag.
 
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