In early 2015, I began my LotFP campaign entitled "Year of the Goat." This past Saturday evening I ran my 40th session, had a new player join the mix, and used a new (to me) character creation tool.
40th Session- The Away Game
In some team sports there exists the terminology of "Home Games" and "Away Games," I think the meaning might be obvious, but I'll explain in case you are even less of a SPORTSFAN than I consider myself to be. Home Game = game played in home city, home field, or home court; Away Game = not played in home city, field, or court. I define these terms in order to explain Session 40's differences to my previous 39 sessions. Session 40 was an Away Game. I have started working in a city about 2 1/2 hours from my home. My work is flexible, but requires me to be physically present, so I travel from my area (rural NW Oregon) to my job's location (Seattle, WA) by train. My two colleagues are both into various types of gaming. One of them is actually an old friend and has played in my "Year of the Goat" campaign intermittently, the other had never played a tabletop RPG before Saturday. From henceforth in this post, they will be referred to as New Player and Old Player.
Character Creation
New Player had gotten back from his shift, so we went out for Pho with Old Player, then came back to the shop and New Player was like "Hey, let's make characters!" Old Player elected to keep his original character, and used the time I was helping New Player with character creation, to do more sketches of his character. New Player clipped right along rolling ability scores, choosing a class (Magic-User,) and making the d20 roll for the randomly chosen spell (Faerie Fire.) He patiently waited for me to figure out how to properly use the equipment die-drop table that I had downloaded awhile back. I had done a light amount of prep for this game, which DID NOT include me mastering the equipment die-drop table like I had intended to do. After New Player had filled everything out he needed to on his character sheet, he had a character named Bloodfart, a 100 year old Magic-User (Level 1) with the freebie spell, Read Magic, and the randomly rolled for spell, Faerie Fire. Old Player's character is Flavius, a 24 year old Specialist (Level 2) who grew up in the sewers and lava tubes of the capitol city of Chizhova. Flavius had been abandoned in the capitol city of Chizhova by the "Party," to run the brothel that they had acquired while on a side quest of sorts. The "Party" is comprised of Home Game's PC's/NPC's. So I had these two players establish how their characters knew each other (they both like to hang out in the sewer and both have Black Market contacts) and we started the session.
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| Bloodfart loves a good Long Island Iced Tea! |
Actual Play Notes from Flavius' previous sessions aka Chizhova's Current State of Affairs
In Flavius' previous session, he and the "Party" had been trying to solve this Mimic Crisis that's occurring in my campaign world. Some distractions in the form of Lizardmen under the city, led them to a bewildering alliance with a resurrected Lizardman godling, a Lizardman shaman, and a Psychic Iguana. Psychic Iguana's motivations being as murky and strange as they were, the "Party" dealt peacefully with him and the remaining Lizardmen. Psychic Igauna rewarded the "Party" by leaving a deed to a building across the street from the inn they had been staying at while in Chizhova. The building turned out to be a former brothel called "The Starving Darling." After a quick day of R&R, the "Party" minus Flavius, resume this pursuit of Mimic Eradication or whatever, and leave the capitol city. None of the "Party" were as excited as Flavius was about the brothel, and he was out scouting for employees to get it up and running again, when they were deciding to go back to report the latest happenings to their bishop (a good chunk of "Party" are clerics of The Church of the Covenant aka The Church of George the Dragonslayer.) So Flavius comes back from the brothel employee scouting mission to find a note from the "Party" informing him they went back to Tragidore to check in with their bishop. Flavius doesn't have enough scratch to hire employees, yet, so he plans to do his own performances until he can hire some staff.
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| Flavius |
In which we meet Bloodfart, see Flavius schemes become a reality and leave town
Flavius resumes the scouting by popping into the sewers and running into his old acquaintance, Bloodfart, who is enjoying the ambiance of "The Stink Drink," a bar located in the Black Market Cave in the Chizhova sewer system. "The Stink Drink," run by Woody, is tiny, only seating 3 at the bar itself. Bloodfart is deep into the Long Island Iced Teas and Dried Baby Dick Snacks when Flavius shows up talking about his brothel running ambitions. Flavius chats with the bartender, trying to get more information about the Mimic Stuff, but Woody only has the same rumors that Flavius is already familiar with (Mimic activity in a magic school in next large city over.) Bloodfart is intrigued by Flavius' ideas for sex shows, and agrees to use his spell Faerie Fire to enhance Flavius' performances. After several more drinks, they leave "The Stink Drink" to go to a bar in the docks area called "The Rotten Stump," which is much larger and busier. Flavius is able to cut through the crowd up at the bar and get much faster service than anyone, as he is on friendly terms with Yelyzaveta the bartender and owner. He buys Krym Ale by the bucket (10 servings) so as not to have to deal with the crowd again anytime soon, and his table becomes a magnet for Frito and Anya*, who are thirsty and too impatient to wait in line up at the bar. Always the entrepreneur, Flavius charges 2cp for what you could buy for 1cp up at the bar. Flavius and Bloodfart persuade Frito, his friend Dolman, and Anya* to follow them to the brothel for the show. Along the way they stop at the "Inn of the Stealing Fat Golem" located across the street from "The Starving Darling." More drinks are had and more audience members for the sex show are rounded up (two elderly ladies named Beatrice and Vix.) Flavius takes Bloodfart and the audience across the street to the brothel and into the Stable Room (this brothel has theme rooms.) The only "furniture" in the Stable Room is a stuffed horse. Flavius gets naked, gets hard, Bloodfart casts Faerie Fire on Flavius' genitals, and Flavius fucks the stuffed horse. The audience enjoys the spectacle and afterwards, the elderly ladies get a "private show" from Bloodfart in one of the other rooms (Beach Room.) 4 out of 5 of the audience members agree to came back for a show the next evening, promising to bring friends along. Flavius is intoxicated by his new enterprise and Bloodfart is intoxicated because he never stops drinking alcohol. Deciding to spice things up a bit, Flavius purchases a dog to use in the show instead of the stuffed horse. Other changes to the show: it is held in the salon/main room of the brothel, Flavius has it catered by "The Inn of the Stealing Fat Golem," and he increases the ticket price from 5cp to 1sp. This show brings in enough income for Bloodfart to do a little shopping, then these two hop on a wagon to Gusakov to investigate Mimic happenings at "The Orange Institute of Arcane Pursuits."
Tools and Tool Users
http://dismastersden.blogspot.com/2017/01/die-drop-complete-equipment-generator.html
A few months ago, I ran across this die drop table for equipment generation. I had meant to do a sample equipment generation on my own, so I wouldn't look like a fool pulling this out the first time at the table, but I didn't. It wasn't that big a deal to figure out on the fly and Bloodfart's player seemed content with what he generated. It's usable in more than one way (just like all the best tools in life, really); it can be a die drop table or it can be a classic random table!
In Conclusion
At one point we were all laughing so much we were crying. The only game I had ever run outside my home environment prior to this session was a LotFP Free RPG Day Demo, a very compressed one-shot. I know I can run longer, more involved material with new players, now. I've never had more than one group mucking about in my campaign world before! I have wanted to run separate groups in a shared world for a number of years, and now that it's finally happening, I'm over the moon! If I had this to do over again, I would have done a die drop table run through on my own, so I wouldn't fumble so much using the tool in front of my players. The players were nice enough to throw their own hook out there, too. I don't remember the exact quote so I'll paraphrase "Besides lighting up the genitals, will Faerie Fire do any permanent damage to him?" This was asked after the second performance. LOL! The good ones do the work for you;-)
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