The RuneChads Arrive

Games are meant to be played!!

This is the first post detailing the expansion of Cymru to an online experience with #ElitePlayers who are veteran gamers with BX, 5e, ACKS, and some Classic RuneQuest. These men of renown will be henceforth called...The #RuneChads.

In deference to my gaming mentor and friend, Bdubs (see his truly exceptional gaming blog here), I will be presenting the RuneChad session reports in a style that looks at the technical aspects of the game more so than the story line. As always, the story continues and I look forward to the tales as told by the RuneChads.

RuneChad Sesssion 1: #NoPrepNovember took place 11/22/23

Players: Bryn Morgan, Assistant Shaman from Selwynshire; Malo, Noble (almost) Initiate of Arawn from Breton; Kane Who Is Called Troll, Warrior of Arawn from the Holy Island. Days in Session:3 

Downtime: 3 days after one day of rest in Ty Arawn

Selwynshire, InkArt version

We don't do Session Zero. Nope, not a thing. I do, however, provide a plausible reason for this otherwise unlinked bunch to reasonably know each other. Character generation proceeded for each in the standard fashion before the game with the players being randomly assigned starting villages...unless they want to pick. This is a REALLY BIG sandbox with literal limits being player creativity so I am always open to broadening things out. Given the particular characters, the session began in Selwynshire where Malo was travelling to meet Kane. Malo was making a pilgrimage from his people in Breton to Ty Arawn to complete his Initiation into the warrior cult. Kane was to guide him the final leg of the journey. Bryn had received word from his shaman, Owain, that the Owl Witch Who Is Dead...isn't. He needed to travel to Ty Arawn to alert the Knights and rally aid.

Is she dead or ain't she?

The blog is an open resource to the players. I am not about lore dumps so if they know the lore, awesome. If they don't...well...they will learn it as they need it. This all took a few minutes before the "OK, what do you want to do?"

Three players and two horses (albeit fine war horses of Malo's) were a starting point to market economics...need to buy a horse. A Customs roll and Bargaining roll secured a riding horse for Bryn, no war horses available. Much discussion about obtaining spirit wards and weapons, a failed Plant Lore by Bryn ended that really good idea. And then... iron. They recognized the importance of iron weapons (#ElitePlayers). As luck had it during chargen, Kane had 2 ENC worth of raw iron. Protected him a bit against magic, he could certainly club an elf over the head with it and do extra damage with it, and it is worth a heck of a lot (1400L) but would be better as a sword or two. 

"We need to buy or steal iron swords and we can't afford to buy them." Hmmm...I could almost hear a REALLY BAD idea percolating. I am a helpful GM when it comes to not being adept with a new rule set. I will not, however, stand in the way of really bad ideas. This would have become perhaps the fastest TPK in the history of gaming. Did that happen?

Selwyn at work

No, not in the slightest. The RuneChads sought an audience with Selwyn, the local Chieftain and RuneLord of Llew Llaw Gyffes and smith. Successful Customs roll and critical Passion (Love of Family) roll got them an almost immediate meeting. Malo set Kane forward for the ask...and he challenged Selwyn to an arm-wrestling contest!!

Selwyn and Kane

Selwyn thought this an excellent introduction (I rolled against Honor...should have also rolled a straight reaction roll...note to self) and accepted the challenge. Stage was set with pipers piping an Augment for Selwyn while Kane looked deep into himself and augmented with his Death Rune...and crushed the rolls! He defeated Selwyn in a battle of honor. Kane then asked for his iron ingots to be forged into enchanted iron swords. Selwyn happily obliged...but it would take a week to complete the forging. In lieu of making them wait on the Owl Witch slaying, he gave Kane two enchanted iron swords and then threw a feast in Kane's honor.

The RuneChads set out the next morning heading to the north and west towards Ty Arawn. It is about a day and a half journey on horseback with the two heavily armored warriors on the trained war horses and the more lightly armored (STR limit for him made ENC a problem with heavier armor) Bryn on a riding horse.

Man Rune Marks The Spot!

Random encounters? I love them! Credit to the BROSR for really changing my view on this. Tremendously opens up the game when you let Oracular Dice speak. They did, in fact, run into the craziest looking dwarf they have ever seen. Well, tbh, they didn't see it at first. Because it was hidden and didn't want to be seen by them...

Surprise works very differently in RQ than in D&D. If you are hidden, and remain unseen, you get a surprise attack. Simple as. RuneChads missed a scan roll, Weird Dwarf (SIZ 17) made its Hide roll. Malo stopped moving. Retrospectively, I should have had him fall off his horse. Note to self. Regardless, RuneChads noticed something was amiss. Again they failed scans, again Weirdo made its Hide. Bryn, in an exceptional #ElitePlayer move, asked "Hey, would the Spirit Magic spell Second Sight work?" Yes, yes it would. He made his casting roll and...YOW! There is a chaos aura with POW between 9 and 14 hiding over in yon bushes some 20 yards away! Kane was on it! Charging towards the Weirdo he...also stopped and stood motionless. Both warriors had failed resistance rolls and were Ensorcelled by some hideous chaos weirdo!

Don't fumble your Elder Race Lore...

What to do??

One of the differences between D&D and RuneQuest is the ubiquity of magic in RuneQuest. It is indeed a very magical world. Getting players to embrace Real Player Autonomy coming out from a D&D background is a delicate balancing act. TPK because you are stupid, well, that's on you. TPK because you did not yet understand what you could do because it is your first time gaming in the system, well, that's on me. 

<You know...that Dismiss Magic that EVERYONE has as an Initiate...might be something to take a look at.>

"Hey, I Dismiss Magic from Kane."

There were now a series of ensorcellments and slashes with Kane ultimately eviscerating the...weird dwarf...with a critical to the abdomen with his enchanted iron broadsword.

Huzzah!

Warrior of Arawn 

I have embraced the BX/ACKS approach to wandering monsters/random encounters: They are not carrying much on them. In this case, nothing on this random weirdo. But it could be Tracked! The range on these creatures is not terribly far so a successful Tracking roll led them to the lair.

Which was not empty. And the horses going uphill into the woods, with armored warriors on war horses, made a lot of noise. They saw two more weirdos lying in wait (failed Hide rolls with successful Scan rolls) were able to hit them with arrows, doing serious damage to one's leg, before any ensorcellment started. Kane charged and two were Intimidated and fled. Unfortunately, Kane was again rendered motionless. 

Malo successfully charged the injured one crawling away and ripped its right leg off with a lance, killing it. It was at that moment he realized there was a third weirdo...who just clawed through the armor on his right arm ripping tendon and fracturing bone. His sword arm was now useless! And now Bryn was motionless having missed a Resistance roll by 3 points!

Malo's warhorse was not, however, immobilized. It kicked at the weirdo while Malo bashed it with his shield. Between the two of them, they crushed the weirdo's arms. As it prepared to flee, a final blow crushed it into the ground. The Ensorcellment was broken and the RuneChads turned to First Aid for Malo's torn arm.

Malo: The Early Years

Except they couldn't make a roll so Malo's arm continued to hang useless. He finally decided to use Heal 2 sequentially and restore his arm to function. Use of a Rune Spell (Heal Wound) would have healed faster for the same number of Magic Points but would have also required a Rune Point. Rune Points don't regenerate...

They explored the lair (with appropriately presented scenery to create more caution) and collected 560C, 100L, and 54W. No special items to be found in this hoard! The RuneChads moved back on the road to complete the trip to Ty Arawn. No far from this lair, they came to a bridge over a not terribly deep river that could be forded. Three failed Hiding rolls by...some largish (SIZ 15) humanoid creatures 100 yards out from the bridge, within composite bow range suggested this was a hopeful ambush by some ne'er-do-wells. Not knowing how many of them there actually were versus how many they could see, they decided to move further to the south and west to avoid bow range, moving about 100 yards further out. Crossing the river required a Riding check...three fails. One of the best moments of the night: "Well, I didn't want to show off since my riding skill was so high, but I actually rolled 00," Ummm, that's a fumble. That's really bad. Oh no! Jump check...three fails...Swim check...Success!! Well, for Kane and Bryn. Malo, having fumbled his Riding skill check, the Jump, and the Swim was now drowning in his bronze plate armor. Fortunately, Bryn and Kane were able to fish him out. 

How many times can you fumble Elder Race Lore?

What is that sound? Do ogres laugh? Yes, yes they do.

Riding checks were again assessed to recover the horses...and three more failures. 

The ogre scouts were having a heck of a good time up on the hillside!

The Rune Chads were able to make it to Ty Arawn by nightfall without further encounters. We ended the session at a safe spot with 1:1 time being in effect for all downtime activities. RuneChads have armor and weapons on them with all other equipment (and loot) somewhere with the horses.

Where did our hoomans go??

GM Summary:

Excellent first exploration of the RuneQuest system by the RuneChads. I will pay closer attention to melee magic limitations and augment usage as well as differentiating Scan and Search skills. This was definitely a learning session for all of us. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens
another.