Building Bhakashal – Session Report

My Wednesday group has stopped for the year. In our previous session the lads had an encounter check with 5 min left, they opted to roll and find out what it was rather than waiting the week and rolling first thing next session. We rolled an encounter with bandits. I grabbed a sample bandit crew from the 1^st Edition AD&D Rogues Gallery to check for the makeup of the group.

It was a very large group, 123 NPCs, organized into 7 units of varying sizes, most of whom were mounted. Since the party was far from Bhakashal, the bandits rode horses. Since it was at night, the bandits had a few torches but were generally hard to see. I rolled for encounter distance, and they were 300’ apart, behind a section of forest. We rolled for surprise, neither side was surprised. When that happens, it means that the two groups notice each other about the same time. I told the party they saw some torchlight flickering through the trees, and the bandits heard the sound of the caravan moving. The caravan travels dark wherever possible, but with almost 90 giant lizards they make some noise while moving. Craight the Swift (the caravan master) sent out a guard to investigate, there was a clash of steel and the guard returned.

He had been attacked and slayed his attacker, when he turned to leave he saw another figure in the distance turning around too. Craight acted instantly, I rolled to see what he would do (I typically come up with 3-4 options and roll between them). In this case, he asked the party warlock to stay with the caravan, then sent it off away from the bandits, he called over 10 guards and a guard captain (all mounted on giant lizards) to stay with him, all the other guards went with the caravan.

He ordered the caravan seer (priest) and caravan warlock to stay their ground with him. The caravan Seer , Hurna Gamelin cast a prayer spell on the party in anticipation of the battle. The party Warlock, Mahl Unoss the Puissant, took out his Wand of Conjuration and summoned two wyverns (randomly determined), which he immediately dispatched towards the force in the distant trees. Craight asked the rest of the party to stay with him.

The party crossed the mountains with Craight, fought with him, gambled with him, talked maps with him, were saved by him, they said yes. I played Craight as plain talking, practical and ruthless in defending his caravan.

The bandit leader, Waymar the Lion, is a disgraced former Lord of a nearby kingdom (they are miles from Bhakashal at this point), he works as a bandit to attack the holdings of the other Lords who discovered his dishonorable works and brought him to account. Waymar is no fool, he reacts just as fast, I roll to see what he does, and the result is sending out three units to the party’s location, and another two out to flank the caravan, anticipating that it might flee rather than stand its ground.

The remaining units stay with Waymar.

His caravan Seer, Pyringa the Coal, activates Fire Shield, enshrouding her body in holy flames. Their caravan warlock, Garmondgol the Reed, travels with Unit 7, commanded by Ygami Ayse, 6^th level  Kutya mercenary henchman of Garmondgol’s. Garmondgol casts Charm Plants on a section of trees immediately beside their main group, they will now work to tangle anything that comes through.

The Unit 1 and Unit 4 bandits take off to cut off the caravan if it chooses to flee (which it did!). They travel without magical protection.

Units 2 and 3 from the bandits appear in the clearing, far apart, the unit 2 lancers spread out and charge directly, the unit 3 bandits attack the flank and pull their horses up in a line to fire crossbows. The unit 5 bandits are going around the long way to approach from directly behind the party and hopefully achieve surprise.

The party responded. When you are being fired at and charged, you get to fire back if you desire. Several party members shot bows and took out mounted 4 bandit crossbowmen, the caravan guards shot crossbows and took out a few more.

The other side shot crossbows and took out a few caravan guards and did minor damage to a few PCs. The party Thaumaturge (thief/magic-user) asked which of the Unit 3 bandits was shouting orders, he then used Magic Missile to target the leader, any attack that reduces you below ½ your HP while mounted dismounts you, the leader shook as the missiles lit him up, and fell to the ground. Magic missiles on the battlefield are very cool, they weave through the chaos to unerringly find their target.

Badass.

The party Seer cast Cacophony of Lies on 5 of the charging lancers, all failed their saves, and the spell took effect. They stopped their charge and began to argue with each other, increasing in intensity, soon abandoning the charge entirely. They scream accusations and abuse at each other, unable to act.

Craight the Swift charges out towards the remaining lancers as they charge, at the last moment he springs into the air using his magical boots and comes down on one of the lancers, splitting his head open with his sword.

The party illusionist was casting a Spectral Force when one of the crossbow bolts, shot from the Unit 3 leader, struck him in the arm, disrupting his spell.

The remaining lancers arrive in the next round, and the crossbowmen drop their bows and charge from their flank with broadswords or battle axes in hand.

Then the remaining 10 lancers and leader arrive. There are 9 party members in the group, 10 guards, the caravan seer and the caravan warlock. The way things were set up, the lancers attacked the party and the caravan warlock. The lancers are 0-levels, so most of them missed, but 3 hit, doing minor damage to the PCs.

Mahl Unoss now casts his first spell (the initial action was with his wand), Stinking Cloud, it commences away from the party and envelops most of the charging bandits. They all fail their saves, LOL, and are down for 4 rounds.

The caravan guards, under the cool eye of Seer Hurna Gamelin, priest of Eddea, target the charging bandits not caught by the cloud with crossbow bolts, between the 10 of them they slay them all.

The party engages in melee with the mounted lancers after the charge, who have switched to broadswords. Since they all got their charge attack, the party Mercenary (fighter), Spartan (monk), Seer (priest) and Slayer (Ranger/assassin) get to respond.

The Spartan uses his magical glaive and slays a lancer handily. The Seer uses his magical Beak and Claw, a short sword dagger combination, if the sword hits, the dagger automatically hits. He has used this a number of times, and he consistently misses with the beak and hits with the claw. This time it worked, and he hit twice, slaying a lancer.

The Slayer used a longsword and gets one attack per round against 0-level lancers (I hold over this rule for my table, in Bhakashal it disappears and is replaced by a crit system that gives high level fighters extra attacks), so he butchers 4 of them with 5 successful hits. This leaves 4 lancers for the Mercenary to deal with.

At this point the Unit 5 bandits are coming around and will attempt to surprise the party, the bandits in the Stinking Cloud are neutralized for 4 rounds, the bandits hit by the Cacophony of Lies are still unable to act, shouting and arguing with each other for another 5 rounds.

While all this fighting has been going on, the two Wyverns have been attacking the main group of bandits. As there are no player characters in the area, I take 5 at the table and roll the results of the encounter. I roll first for surprise, which was successful for the wyverns (the bandits were not expecting an aerial assault). The beasts dive, shrieking, and randomly target two bandits, and two of them are snatched in their beaks, flown into the sky, torn in half and fall to the ground below.

I figure that counts for a morale check, not all of the bandits are seasoned veterans, but all units make the check. As the wyverns dive again, the units separate, forcing them to choose targets. A die roll determines that they both focus on Unit 6 again. This time there is missile fire from 18 bandits, 7 of them hit, doing damage, but not enough to take either Wyvern out of the sky.

The two leaders of unit 6 throw nets at the creatures, trying to foul their talons, one misses but one hits, and the wyvern screeches in anger, veering off. The other whips it’s tail around as it passes, skewering one of the leaders, who fails his poison save and dies on the spot. The leader of Unit 7 hurls a spear at one of the Wyverns as it passes and scores a crit, blinding it, and it crashes into the trees.

The wyvern with tangled talons circles, this gives the soldiers time to shoot, but they roll terribly and it manages to strike again, this time not bothering with talons and using the tail, it skewers the other unit 6 leader who dies instantly.

This triggers another morale check, and unit 6 breaks up and flees. Unit 7 crossbowmen manage to do enough damage that the second wyvern crashes into the ground, and dies.

I now switch to the party Warlock who has fled with the caravan. Borun the Majestic, an 8^th level Bhakashal Warlock, along with 40 guards, are being pursued by Units 1 and 4, who are trying to cut them off. The guards split between front and back of the caravan, and Borun chose to ride at the back, assuming that they were fast enough and reacted soon enough to get ahead of their pursuers.

Movement is treated deterministically, so plotted trajectories using the routes available on the map, measured distances, and determined that the caravan would indeed make it past the pursuing group, that would be approximately 100’ behind them when they emerged.

I rolled for surprise, the bandits failed, which means when they burst out on to the trail the caravan was on, Borun was aware they were coming. My job as the ref is to interpret the rolls, in this case I decided that the bandits, in trying to cut off the caravan, had to move through the forest, and made quite the ruckus doing so, which allowed the PC to know they were coming and react before they could. Riding full bore through the forest and exploding out on to the trail would be disorienting as well.

ME - “You hear crashing through the woods behind you, getting closer by the moment”

Borun - “I call to Glose, Makel and Khog, ‘circle’! I call to the other guards “flank, crossbows!”

“Circle” means that the guards will surround the warlock, protecting him while he casts spells. Borun lost some gold to these three guards in cards over the last few days of travel, they are eager to keep him alive! They are all mounted, like Borun, on giant lizards. “Flank, crossbows” means that the other guards in the unit will flank Borun and shoot crossbows until melee or flight is necessary.

Borun takes out a scroll, unfurling it and beginning to read. The symbols dance on the papyrus, there is a shimmering in the air, then Borun’s eyes roll back, and he points, slashing his finger across the air in front of him, then around 80’ back, a searing circular wall of fire appears, cutting across the trail.

Seconds later, the charging bandits explode from the forest, surprised, and ride through the curved wall of fire. Unit was was in the lead, riding in two rows of 5, as they have nets and were going to net the party for Unit 4 to finish off. Because of the placement, and surprise, the radius of the wall (30’), it caught all of the first wave of 5, the second wave rolled saves for half to avoid. 

The wall does 2-12 + 8, so it incinerated the first 5 bandits, and almost killed all their horses, the second wave had a few successful saves, but the damage was enough to kill them too.  The only survivors were the two 3^rd level unit leaders, they made it through the wall but were now in the middle of a circular wall of fire.

The next wave of riders saw the flames and heard the screaming before emerging and called a stop.

They ride around and emerge into the road, at this point the crossbowmen from the caravan were in position and fire, 13 shots, med range penalties but they did respectably, taking out 4 of the next unit.

Now, Unit 4 saw unit 1 incinerated, its leaders captured, so a morale roll was in order. They passed though, so I had one of the Unit 4 leaders fire them up with screams for revenge. Now, they had the choice to either return fire or charge. Tactically, returning fire was probably smarter, but they were pissed off, so I rolled to see what they would do, and they took out swords and axes and charged.

The guards fired crossbows again, this time 13 shots took down 3 more bandits. 13 left, but 2 of these are 5^th level leaders, and they were pissed.

Borun easily identified the leaders from their shouted commands and targeted one with Polymorph Other.

“Borun takes out a small caterpillar cocoon from his belt pouch, he whispers the words “czoam, kallam noss beka”, five times over, moving the cocoon to a different point in the air with each iteration, finally, he holds the cocoon in between his cupped hands, blows on them, and opens them again. The cocoon is gone, but a green and yellow smoke curls out and shoots in the direction of Nogoth the Fist, the primary leader of Unit 4, the smoke enters his mouth, and as he screams his body thrashes so violently it falls from his horse, then his limbs begin to distort and twist, and with amazing rapidity his form is changed from that of an adult Emberi (human) to that of a small wild boar.

The bandits stared in horror. That required another morale check, and this one failed. The remaining bandits peeled off and headed back to their leader. The two leaders caught in the wall of fire were starting to choke on the smoke, they both rolled saves to avoid asphyxiation.

So now Unit 6 and the remainder of Unit 4 have fled, Unit 7 is with the bandit leader, priest and warlock, Unit 1 is destroyed, it’s leaders almost dead. Units 2 and 3 have sustained losses, and there are lancers still under the effect of Cacophony of Lies, as well as a chunk of the other mounted unit in a Stinking Cloud spell.

At this point, the party Slayer, who is a Garudin (bird folk) flies up into the air and over towards the bandit leader. He surveys from the air and sees the carnage that Borun has wrought, the fleeing bandits from both the leader’s position and the caravan’s, as well as the unit approaching from the rear of the party.

He calls out to the bandit leader.

“Your bandits broke and are fleeing, we have slain dozens, is it worth so much death?”

Waymar, the bandit leader, had a decision to make. He had lost one unit entirely, most of two others, including his precious lancers, and he had done some damage to the caravan (about 10 guards dead so far), but it was clear that this was going to be a tough fight, with heavy losses. One of his personal henchmen blew on a horn three times, signalling for all units to return. One of the fleeing units came back, another kept going, deciding they had enough!

He decided to parley.

I rolled to see what Craight would do.  As soon as the party Slayer started talking Craight decided he would not trust Waymar to stick to his guns if he did agree to parley, especially once his troops regrouped, so he told Mahl Unoss to use his Wand again, and the Warlock took it out, tracing a pattern in the air with its glowing end, speaking the command words just low enough that no one nearby would hear.

I rolled to see what he got this time, and it was 3 manticores, they shrieked, then landed and surrounded Mahl Unoss. The bandit leader, flanked by his remaining units, emerged from the woods, the Unit that was sent to attack the party from behind was now gone and back with Waymar.

The two groups faced each other.

The leader from Unit 5 shouted to Waymar, “Nogoth the Fist is transformed, he squeals as a young, wild boar now, let us slay them all!”

Waymar barked a response, “SILENCE”, and turned to the party and Craight, pointing at the figure beside him, sheathed in bright blue flames.

“You place me in a bind strangers, my priestess, Pyringa the Coal, who burns bright beside me even now, burns for your blood, she is a priestess of Iospha, god of the pyre, you used your debased magic fire to burn our warriors, your continued existence is an affront to her god.”

He then pointed to a Togmu (frog-folk) figure who was sitting atop a strange mount, it appeared to be a stag, its tail being rather lion-like, and its legs ending in cloven hooves. Its head is that of a huge badger, but instead of teeth it has sharp, jagged bony ridges. It’s fur was mottled and grotesque.

Dressed in only a cloak and harness, the Togmu had a scimitar, several scroll tubes and a pair of drums all within easy reach.

“Garmondgol the Reed is my warlock, you have slain many of his friends today, and he begs me to command him to summon a powerful creature to crush your men like insects.”

 

Craight spoke up now, hand gripping his sword like a vise.

 

“My warlock, Mahl Unoss the Puissant, has summoned three beasts to his side, they will impale dozens of your warriors from afar and tear the heads off the others when close. While they do that, he will use his magics to slay dozens more.”

 “My priestess, Hurna Gamelin, protects our warriors from your weapons with blessings from Eddea, they will endure”

 Then the party warlock spoke up, Craight had advised against this, as he was directly responsible for many horrible deaths, so he was ready for anything.

 “I, Borunn the Majestic, Warlock of House Quannar, will, in a gesture of good faith, break my transformation of your Nogoth the Fist, returning him to you intact.”

 There was some conversation on the other side, then Waymar turned to Pyringa the Coal, whose flames were still flickering, and she then doused the flames, and sat down, casting gem inlaid bones in the dirt and reading them. Pyringa cast an Augury spell.

 It advised that they should disengage and leave. I then made an encounter reaction roll, since Waymar’s personality was “calculating” and he was fairly intelligent, I gave a bonus to the roll, I also added bonuses for Borun’s offer and the Augury result, and deductions for the havoc the party wrought on the bandits.

 The reality was that with several spellcasters on both sides, there would be much more death coming. He rolled positively enough that he agreed to call a stop.

 “We leave now, I need my troops too much right now to lose them foolishly over revenge. But know this, if any of you should pass this way again, we will slaughter you without mercy or hesitation.”

The boys considered bantering with the guy but decided against it.

The two groups carefully separated, with the party Slayer staying in the air for a while as they separated, ensuring the bandits were not in pursuit.

In a few game weeks I will roll to see if Pyringa the Coal will leave the caravan at their next stop and take some bandits with her to exact revenge on the party. But they don’t know that.

That's the stuff.

 

Building Bhakashal - Session Report - One Shot Game

I ran a 1 shot adventure for the dads that play in our father/son game, there was a Seer (priest), a Warlock (magic-user) and two Mercenaries (fighters) ranging in level from 4^th to 6^th. Their task was a simple one. An up-and-coming Bhakashal Warlock (Kamerli the Ivory) from House Quannar had been collaborating with a Warlock from outside the city (Bhomar the Bronze), but Bhomar had stopped communicating recently, something was up.

This collaboration was outside of Kamerli’s Noble house, and he did not want it known, so he hired the PCs, who were not from his House, to travel to Bhomar’s tower and discover what had happened. The conceit was that their last successful venture had them talked about and Kamerli decided to recruit them for his own use.

They headed out on their giant lizards into the marshlands and the early morning heat. They took the road for the majority of the trip, travelling by the road is faster, and somewhat safer, as it’s patrolled, but it is still dangerous travelling anywhere in the marshlands. The only encounters they had were with a House patrol, which resulted in a bit of back and forth, a some palmed coins to get the patrol to move on, a small herd of giant lizards. An encounter reaction roll had the lizards ignoring them, so they continued on.

They then entered the Cairan Forest. There were a pair of Cifal in the forest that waited beside the trail to pick off unwary travelers. We rolled for surprise and the party surprised them. I interpreted this as the party hearing a strange buzzing noise ahead of them, the warlock sent his familiar, a blood hawk, ahead to investigate, and they discovered the creatures. They decided to set up a trap.

The party Seer cast Glyph of Warding on two trees then the party stood behind the trees and started to make noise. The Cifal came to investigate, and immediately moved to attack, triggering the two glyphs. The party wisely chose fire glyphs, the creatures were damaged, and a morale roll had them fleeing.

It was a clever plan; I’ve seen groups rush in with regular weapons to fight creatures like this and they get slaughtered. Cifal are stupid but dangerous, and they played on that.

They continued forward, using the blood hawk to scout ahead, and they discovered the tower, there were 4 armed Saan (lizard folk) on the roof of the tower playing cards, but that was all they could tell. After a discussion they came up with a plan, create a distraction to draw them out, then sneak in and find Bhomar, assuming they were holding him hostage.

One of the hardest things as a ref is to not say anything when they speculate and you know they are wrong, or for that matter right.

They waited until night, risking two more random encounter rolls, and a patrol from the tower, and after midnight the party warlock cast dancing lights in the forest to make it look like there was some sort of fire starting.

As a referee I know what is happening, but the NPCs don’t, in order to emulate that, I roll to see what they will do. In this case, the bandits who had taken over the tower were suspicious, they were really off the beaten path here, there had been no recent lightning strikes, so the odds of a fire starting up spontaneously were zero. This meant someone set the fire, and potentially as a distraction. I came up with a set of options, and the rolled result was to send out a group of bandits to investigate but post a bandit at all windows and doors just in case this is some sort of distraction and someone was going to try to gain entrance to the tower.

The PCs approached a 2^nd floor window, they were climbing in when they saw a bandit charging them with a scimitar! They dropped back down, and the party proceeded to hug the wall and move around to a first floor door. Rooftop crossbowmen shot at them, the bandit with the scimitar screamed “SOUTH SIDE”, to let everyone inside and outside the tower know there were intruders on the south side.

So at this point, things have went south, their advantage, surprise and stealth, was lost, and the whole bandit crew knew where they were. How players approach the situation when things go south is, quite frankly, a good measure of their skill at the table. I was keen to see how they were going to figure this out.

By this point the bandits had sent out a group of 5 and one sergeant to investigate the “fire” in the woods, when they got there they discovered that it gave off no heat, then they heard “SOUTH SIDE” and ran to join the others.

The jig was up.

The party moved to the east side door and started smashing it with a mace. The player running the mercenary smashing the door asked for a critical effect. In Bhakashal you can specify a critical effect for your attack that isn’t listed in the books, but everyone has to agree to it. They wanted to smash the door such that the critical blow would send splinters and wood dust flying towards those inside, temporarily distracting them. They asked for a segment of delay, I said sure.

They rolled the critical and were successful. 1 segment delay allowed the mace-wielding mercenary to drop and for the rest of the party to let loose without risking hitting him. We rolled for initiative, and I rolled absolutely terribly. There were two crossbowmen and a Thaumaturge inside. A Thaumaturge is a Bhakashal thief/magic-user that only uses scrolls. The Thaumaturge had a scroll out and was reading from it, the PCs shot one of the crossbowmen dead, then the other, and the party warlock’s Magic Missile struck the Thaumaturge in mid cast.

As a side note, Magic Missile as a spell casting disruptor is one of my absolute favorite applications of the spell, huge range, auto-hit, no save, and it disrupts spell casting for any spell of any level.

That’s boss.

Then the party Seer (priest) cast Hold Person on the Thaumaturge, and that was it. They ran in and tied her up so she couldn’t cast when the spell wore off. At this point, all of the bandits had left the tower, knowing the party was coming around to the side door. They were hoping that the Thaumaturge (one “Maglane the Malachite”) would have stopped them in their tracks. Now, the bandit leader, a Saan named Rojmi Yin, announced that he had them surrounded, and they should surrender

The party shot back that they had his warlock and that they would kill her if he didn’t back off. I rolled to see how he would react.

He replied, “She knew the risks, I’ll kill you all if I have to”. 

So, at this point they kind of panicked. They were trapped, potentially outnumbered, and felt they had no bargaining power. People make a lot of noise about “no win scenarios”, but I’m neutral on this. The PCs maneuvered themselves into this situation, they had to figure out a solution. I’m not helping them out, I’ll talk out stuff and answer rules questions, but they have to do something.

They were in the tower kitchen, they decided to bolt to the next room.

There was a life-sized stone statue of a warrior in this room, that was obviously a sitting area, and on the far side a door that led to the outside, there were two bandits there, when the party emerged they threw oil flasks to the ground that shattered, spreading oil all over the floor.

Then they tossed in a lit torch.

The bandit’s plan was to start a fire in a wizards tower, since it was made of stone they had a bit of time, the party would either be flushed out, or the smoke would take them down. They would then throw water on the fire to put it out, pulling out the bodies. The players were all looking at each other. They had a few options, they could travel up the tower to escape the fire and most of the smoke, but eventually the bandits would come in. They could burst out the other door fighting, hoping to get lucky. They could cast a spell on the way out the door.

Then the player running the party Seer (priest) noted that he had a Resist Fire spell, he read the description and realized a Resist Fire would make the fire harmless for them.

Watching the look on his face as he realized he had a workable idea was priceless.

He was 6^th level, with his wisdom spell bonus he could cast Resist Fire enough times to cover the whole party (in Bhakashal you don’t pre-memorize or pray for your spells each day, you just have a limitation on how many you can cast). So first he cast it on himself.

They heard the bandits outside laughing about how the party was going to die in the fire, betting on whether any of them would run out and be slaughtered, and taunting the PCs, “Come out little pigs”, “Die by fire or by iron”, the Seer then cast it on another PC.

At this point I told them it was getting hard to breathe with all the smoke in the room, so when the Seer went to cast again, I made him roll a saving throw, which he failed, so he got into a coughing fit while casting and had to stop. The other PCs also had to roll, but they made their saves. The Seer tried to cast again, and successfully protected all the party members. The paralyzed NPC Thaumaturge did not have protection.

At this point, the smoke was thick.

They used the cover to run up the stairs to the third level, carrying the NPC Thaumaturge with them. The bandits were now bringing up buckets of water (the tower was on an island in a small river), to throw on the fire so they could enter and extract the bodies or find the hiding PCs.

The party talked to the paralyzed NPC, offering to end the paralysis and reminding her that they saved her, they could have left her in the fire, paralyzed, to die. The Seer broke the spell, freeing her. I had to see what she would do. She could have attacked, feigned turning to their side while intending to betray them at first opportunity, in situations like this I use encounter reaction rolls. Her’s was VERY positive, which I interpreted as a reaction to being told she was expendable, combined with her reasons for being there, I decided she had fallen out of favor with her employers and had fled to join the bandits until things blew over, they hadn’t struck it big yet, and she wanted out. She spilled the beans on everything.

She told them that a basilisk had entered into Bhomar’s secret chambers in the cave complex beneath the tower and petrified Bhomar. The creature then came into the tower and petrified Bhomar’s henchman Hagal Sevenwinds (the stone statue in the front room).

The bandits found the tower, it appeared recently abandoned so they moved in, the basilisk was in the cellar when they arrived, they saw it and blocked the doorway to the cellar and it’s still there. She also spilled that the bandits were working for someone who wanted to disrupt the holdings of House Rostus, all of the territory in the marshlands is the responsibility of a particular noble house, this hex was under the management of House Rostus, and the bandits were harrying caravans in this area to make House Rostus look bad

This was all backroom campaign faction stuff, totally over their heads, but they quickly glommed on to the fact that this information was GOLD to their patron. In a factionalized setting, knowledge is power. So, they knew they had something important.

I was running a clock timer for that conversation, I rolled to see how long it would be before the bandits put out the fire, let the smoke disperse a bit and realized the party wasn’t there in the burnt room and came into the upper levels of the tower looking for them.

After their talk, Maglane took out a scroll. Thaumaturges in Bhakashal cast spells from scrolls, so it’s one and done, and using a powerful scroll is a big deal. She had Binnatav's Sudden Viscosity, a fun 7^th level spell that makes the air thick, it gives big penalties to combat and movement, and makes it difficult to breathe. The longer you are in it, the greater the chances you will pass out. The caster, and up to 1 target per level of experience, are immune to the effects. It was her most powerful spell. Maglane took the scroll, walked down the stairs until she could see the room, and started casting the spell.

To determine if she was spotted or not I called for a surprise roll, attempting casting from concealment is a great use of the surprise mechanic. She achieved surprise, they went past the bandits and fled the tower. There were 6 bandits waiting outside. However, they saw Maglane leaving with them, and they did not see Rojmi Yin with them, so they figured something just went down. They backed off and the party fled. When the blood hawk circled the tower earlier they saw a stable with mounts.

They ran to that stable and released all the bandit’s mounts to flee into the marshes. They then found their mounts, tied up nearby, and headed back to the city. They were not pursued by Rojmi Yin, it took days to get the mounts gathered up. He will exact his revenge later; I will add him to the random encounter table for the marshlands and the city…

They traveled three days to get back to the city, meeting a caravan and a poison snake on the way back, both encounters went favorably. They went to their employer, reported on what they knew, and were rewarded for their success with gems and a new patron. Kamerli the Ivory has schemes he doesn’t want to share with others in his House, so the PCs, as outsiders, are perfect agents for him. My players asked me, “What does Kamerli think of House Rostus, are they an aligned house, or an enemy House?” Bhakashal gives all institutions and groups alignments, and institutions with the same alignment tend towards being allies

It ended up (and I didn’t plan it), that House Quannar and House Rostus were both LN, so this intel about someone wanting to undermine House Rostus was particularly valuable. This is also why all areas in the marshland are designated as territories of the various Houses, so when stuff happens there the referee has a potential connection to make. The PCs discovered the fate of Bhomar as tasked, and they revealed the location of a trapped basilisk, something that Kamerli was quite delighted to hear, “I’ll either kill it and dissect it to make spells, or I’ll put it in my garden and send tedious guests to be turned into art.”

The adventure was more than a success.

They had a new patron. And all the players wanted to play again, regularly. They clearly had a blast, and none of us expected what actually happened. Most of all, they had to think their way out of things, and it feels good when a plan comes together.

That’s the stuff.

Building Bhakashal – Session Report

I’ve often been asked, “how much do you get done in a session with your playstyle”, the following session lasted 2 hours.

My Wednesday group finishes up at the end of June, and the PCs have just finished exploring the Forgotten City. They spent three days in the desert city of Esham waiting for their caravan to leave and are now heading back to Bhakashal. The journey (depending on weather) is around 16 days.

After a few sessions exploring an ancient city, they were up for some travel with random encounters. In particular they were up for a trip with the caravan they had travelled with to get to the Forgotten City. One thing about long distance travel is that you form bonds with NPCs, you fight together, spend time talking, socializing, and NPCs take on a life of their own.

The caravan leader, Craight the Swift, is a 7^th level Mercenary (Bhakashal fighter). He’s bold and clear headed, making decisive decisions when needed to protect his cargo and his people. He has three magic items (Boots of Striding and Springing, Borghental’s Razor Sword and a Ring of Fire Resistance) and has learned to spring on to enemies and cleave them with his sword (x2 damage). He’s saved PCs and been saved by PCs now several times and is a favorite of the party. I play him as taciturn in battle but jovial in between, he likes fresh game, knows curse words in five languages, and he never starts arguments.

The caravan’s Warlock (a 7^th level Bhakashal magic-user) is Mahl Unoss the Puissant. Mahl owes a debt to the party for helping him to retrieve a powerful crystal ball that was stolen from him on the way there. Mahl has a penchant for gambling, a fascination with swords, and I play him as clever, somewhat sarcastic and generous with his friends (though he is slow to make them).

The caravan also has a 5^th level Seer (Bhakashal Cleric) of Omagh, Bhakashal god of Death, Hurna Gamelin. She likes to use augury and other divination magic for the other members of the caravan in their down time and has made converts of a number of the animal handlers in the caravan, who she gambles with daily. She’s a bit of a card shark.

When we travel like this I get the players to roll for random encounters and decide each day if they want to do any social role play. They left under clear skies in the desert, for three days of travel to get to the mountains.

Day 1 – Despite the fact that we have done this many times before, they LOVE to roll for encounters. There is something about rolling dice that creates excitement. The odds of getting an encounter at some point in the day (there are 4 checks a day) are about 40%. On day 1 they rolled no encounters. On a day when they get no encounters, they cheer and hoot about their luck. And it’s entirely luck at this point, no skill, but they don’t care, that just makes it even more exciting. They also have superstitions about the dice. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, getting the players to roll dice is almost instant, guaranteed excitement.

Day 2 they rolled no encounters but decided to spend some role playing time with Craight. Bhakashal has personality tables you can use to assign personality traits to NPCs, sometimes I roll on it for an NPC, sometimes I just make up stuff. In an earlier session I described one of the bags on Craight’s mount as being “filled with scroll cases”, a totally throwaway point that I then needed to explain, so I decided that Craigt had a fascination with maps, particularly treasure maps. As it happens, one of the players (and by osmosis, his PC - the party Thaumaturge - Bhakashal thief/magic-user), also loves maps, so they talked maps for a while. Craight has a collection of treasure maps (I worked up a few between sessions), and the PC tried to convince him to part with one. A positive reaction roll was interpreted as gratitude on Craight’s part for the party fighting off fire giants several weeks ago, and eventually they settled on a map from near Bhakashal, on the condition that Craight accompany them if they pursued the treasure.

So that is an adventure-in-your-back-pocket for next year.

Day 3  they rolled… no encounters.

At that point they were shrieking, three days without a roll! It never fails, even though they KNOW that, statistically, there will be runs of “hits” and runs of “misses”, every time you get a run they freak out, scream, jump around and lose the plot over their good/bad luck.

You can’t buy that kind of enthusiasm, it’s the power of sharing the odds and rolling in the open.

Though the caravan carries food and water, they still detour to water sources (the route is known to Craight so he steers them so they can find water sources as they travel), gather edible plants and hunt for game. A large caravan needs lots of food. On the morning of Day 4 the party Slayer (Bhakashal Ranger) traveled with a few of the guards to hunt as they had reached the hills before the mountains.

In this case other players took over the guards and rolled for them, it’s important to keep the other players engaged when one leaves the party. After an hour they found some deer in the hills and managed to bag two, bringing them back to the caravan. Also, the Slayer was so impressed with one guard, Toma Brait, a Kutya (dog-folk) crossbowman for shooting a deer, that he convinced Toma to become his henchman when they got back to the city. The players really get invested in the NPCs, and not just the powerful ones.

Finally, on the evening of day 4 as they moved into the mountains they rolled their first encounter, with a pack of 15 dire wolves.

Now, the caravan consists of 30 giant lizards, 50 guards, 30 animal handlers, two sergeants and one captain. It’s a BIG caravan. When animals appear and see such a large group they don’t just automatically attack. I roll to see what they will do. At first they followed from a distance and howled at the party, which kind of freaked them out a bit.

I rolled to see if they would attack, I had planned on having them try to swarm and pull down isolated mounted guards, dragging them off to devour them. Alas, the dice didn’t cooperate and the wolves gave up, deciding the caravan was too big.

True to form, now the encounters came fast and furious. Day 5 in the night they rolled an encounter with a group of Togmu (frog folk) pilgrims, worshippers of Eddea, Bhakashal god of love and desire. As the caravan was camped, the pilgrims asked to stay with them for the night, and to collect alms to pay for their spiritual journey. They took up a collection, and in exchange performed for the caravan, singing moving hymnals and playing the nophera late into the night. The Togmu nophera is set of “pan pipes” where the pipes themselves have intricate carvings on the inside of the pipe that produce varied tones, and the tubes and are connected to rollers so they can be spun while they are blown into, muting, magnifying or reverberating the sound.

The next morning, they parted ways and encounters were rolled for day 6, again, the encounter came at night when the party was camped down. This time the encounter was with 15 Pteranodons. Fortunately, they did not get surprise, and the one awake PC and the awake guards got to respond. The Pteranodons dove to try and pick up targets and take them away to eat (historical Pteranodons eat fish, Bhakashal Pteranodons eat flesh!). This time the fact the majority of the party was asleep meant they weren’t targeted. Guards took out their spears and crossbows.

For those with spears, longest weapon strikes first, so we waited. For those firing missiles, they had to decide at what range they would fire. At long range they take a -5 penalty to hit, but a diving target takes a 2 point AC penalty, so that adds to a -3 to hit. In exchange for shooting at the longest range, they can switch weapons and dive for cover after shooting. At med range they take a -2 penalty to hit that is cancelled out by the diving AC adjustment, and they can shoot and EITHER dive for cover or switch weapons before they arrive. At short range they can’t do either of these but take no range penalty. I rolled to see what the guards would do and most took out spears, a few crossbows.

The party Spartan (Bhakashal Monk) had a javelin of piercing, he opted to use it at long range as the Javelin treats all ranges as short, and then to dive for cover and take out a glaive in case he was attacked. The Javelin hit true and did more than ¾ the beast’s HP in damage, indicating an uncontrolled dive and crash, which was great, but the Spartan had to make a saving throw or the creature would crash into him on the way down! He made his save, and the beast crashed and died.

ONE SHOT KILL!!!!

I can’t really overstate how LOUD the players got after this happened, they LOVE it when they take out a monster in one shot. They danced around the table, trash talked the other 14 Pteranodons, and were generally obnoxious about it. The guards did moderately well, the Pteranodons were diving, so they did double damage on an attack automatically if they hit, and if they rolled a critical, they could opt instead to snatch the target up ad fly them away. Two of the beasts tore the guards to pieces on their dive, three of the guards did enough damage impaling the beasts their spears to bring them down (any attack that does more than half of their total HP makes it impossible for them to fly, in this case causing a crash, and any attack with a spear planted against a diving target does double damage).

 

There were 5 mutual misses, 1 was killed by the party Spartan, and 3 mutual hits, this brought down two more beasts, and killed three guards, diving doubles damage!. Toma Brait took down his flying fiend by splitting his belly with a broadsword. That got a big cheer. Because I roll in the open when an NPC does well in combat it feels real, not something I made happen to make them look cool, they ACTUALLY ARE COOL. Rolling in the open was the best decision I ever made. Players become really invested in NPCs, in this case as Toma was going to sign on as a henchman at the end of the trip, they hung on his every encounter, waiting to see if he would live or die, and zero level warriors have 1-6 hp, so death is a VERY real concern.

 

The Pteranodons came around for another run, at this point the other party members woke up and joined in, the party tank shot two arrows and took out one beast, the party warlock used magic missile and took out another. The party Thaumaturge decided to get creative, and waiting until the diving beast was in short range, and used three throwing stars, the first missed, the second hit for minor damage, but the third was a critical, he chose to blind the beast, giving it a -4 to hit against him. As a result, the beast missed as it passed, flying of blind in terror. The party Slayer fired and missed, but he was also missed. The party Spartan attended to a wounded guard and protected him.

 

The party Seer of Nesig (god of Revenge, Loyalty), has paired magic items called a beak and claw (short sword and dagger) that have the magical property that a hit by the beak means an automatic hit by the claw. The Seer waited until the beast was almost upon him to strike. Longest weapon strikes first on charge/dive, so he went first. He missed with the beak, but hit and got a critical with the claw. He chose “knock back into surface”, but asked that this be interpreted as dodging to the side and stabbing the beast in the neck as it passed, it’s momentum taking it forward and crashing into the ground.

 

BADASS.

 

You are welcome to make up critical effects in Bhakashal, use weapon specific criticals or general combat criticals for any critical hit. So interpreting an existing critical hit is perfectly acceptable.

 

Another one down.

 

At this point a morale role was made and the beasts fled. They had slain several guards and flown off with a few. The party Slayer, a Garudin (bird folk) fled after one of the captured guards and tried a crazy stunt. He maneuvered below the pair, rolled a critical with a crossbow shot, and chose to have it strike the creature in a way as to make it drop his cargo, then he had to make an additional saving throw to catch the plummeting guard, which he did! He then flew after the other guard, but found him dead on the ground with a bloody dagger in his hand, he had stabbed the pteranadon and plummeted to his death. It was one of the guards that they played cards with regularly, so that made them sad.

 

The caravan Seer carried out last rights on the dead, burning them to release their souls. The party sang funeral dirges along with the guards to send them off.

On day 7, while still in the mountains, they encountered another caravan, they exchanged greetings and passed uneventfully. Many encounters end this way, an encounter reaction roll for NPCs determining that they aren’t interested in fighting.

I will add that I had two “special” encounters on my tables, in this case when I rolled a regular encounter I would roll a 1 in 12 chance of a special. Special encounter 1 was with the warlock, Haegemal the Heliotrope, who the party abandoned in his fight with a pit fiend. I reckoned he might show up, pissed, and let the party know his feelings. Special encounter 2 was with the adventuring party they met in the desert, who may or may not be travelling back to Bhakashal as well.

So far neither came up.

On day 8 on a morning travel break the party Slayer and Thaumaturge gambled with the guards. They played a complicated Bhakashal dice game called Minotaur’s curse, and the Thaumaturge managed to cheat on two turns without being noticed. Gambling with adventurers, who generally had purses overflowing with gold, was a popular pastime in the caravan, and the party enjoyed the conversations, gathering of intel, and both winning and losing.

In the afternoon of day 8, while on the plains, they had a weird encounter, reminding me that you never really plumb the depths of the 1e DMG. I was switching between the DMG tables and the Fiend Folio tables for variety, and rolled on the dinosaur tables in the DMG. I got,  “Miscellaneous, small-medium reptiles*” as a result, curious about the asterisk, it led to the following passage:

“Basically small or inoffensive creatures which can not be immediately distinguished as such by onlookers”

What the hell? I decided that a swarm of large (1’ long) beetles were crossing the trail ahead of them, so many that it appeared to be a black, shiny stream crossing their path. They sent out the party Slayer to investigate, and he figured out it was THOUSANDS of these beetles. I decided that as long as they didn’t attack the swarm, it would eventually pass, if they did it would divert towards them, and swarm over them like a river. They waited it out and continued, not aware of how lucky they were!

Day 9 arrived. The party Seer decided to try to convert some of the guards and animal handlers to Nesig. In Bhakashal you pray to all gods for blessings in their domain, but you pick one god whose domain most resonates with you as your primary god of worship. The Seer preached to the caravan guards and animal handlers about Nesig, how worshipping the dark blue skinned, six armed, dragon headed god, who rides a panther, would bring balance and harmony to their lives

“For Nesig”, he told them, “revenge means justice and balance, as the god guides you to gain revenge for wrongs against you, that will bring balance to your soul, and with that comes peace and contentedness.”

Joy through revenge, what a concept!

He managed to make 5 converts in the caravan crew, glory to Nesig!

The players then rolled out the next random encounters and we hit in the evening again. This time I rolled bandits, and rather than generate them on my own, I took out my trusty copy of the 1e AD&D Rogues gallery. There was no surprise indicated, and the groups were separated by 300 feet at night, so both groups saw the torches from the other encampment. Craight sent out one of his men to scout, there was the sound of clashing blades and he returned to tell them he was attacked and slayed his opponent.

Craight put two and two together and decided (after a reaction roll) to act decisively. He ordered Mahl Unoss, Hurna Gamelin and a group of 10 guards to delay the bandits as long as possible while he led the caravan away. He asked the party to help as well. Mahl Unoss took out his Wand of Conjuration and conjured a pair of wyverns, sending them to harass the bandits, Hurna cast a Prayer spell on all of them in anticipation of the impending fight. The party split, half going with the caravan, the other staying behind with Hurna and Mahl.

We stopped there.

The bandits have a high level fighter with mid-level lieutenants, a Seer and a Warlock, as well as 100 zero level soldiers.

It’s going to be an epic fight.

When I describe the process for travel encounters I often hear people suggesting it will be boring or repetitive, or that rolling rather than choosing means that things won’t work out. As you can see here, that’s not the case. The travel rules allow for social role play, faction building, alliance formation and engaging combat opportunities. Also, combat doesn’t take up so much time that we didn’t get through 6 encounters and numerous social role play moments in 2 hours. Combat is fast and deadly in Bhakashal, so you can get a lot done.

 

Building Bhakashal – Randomization

I built Bhakashal on a foundation of random rolling. This isn’t a particularly controversial idea, but the scope of the randomization is perhaps something that people might not be familiar with. There are several sources of randomization.

1. Tables

There are tables for spells, magic items, encounter tables, personality types, gods, mounts, weather conditions and many other aspects of the game.

One of the primary goals of this randomization was to allow the referee and players, in tandem, to procedurally generate the game world as they play, rather than detailing every aspect of the game world in advance. The latter is simply impossible, and even the more restricted guideline of detailing only what the referee thinks will be needed, is still fundamentally challenging. One of the truisms of role-playing games is that the players will go to places and do things you didn’t anticipate.

My original reason for using procedural generation was the sheer size of Bhakashal as a city, I looked at the closest equivalent fantasy city in size (The City State of the Invincible Overlord) and the sheer number of entries was formidable. Either you would have a hopelessly large descriptive section (which would be unwieldy) or you would pare down the details to the point that the referee was generating a significant amount of material in play, which defeats the purpose of providing such a descriptive section in the first place.

As I progressed it became clear that procedural generation using tables was the core mechanic for creating the setting. Rather than pre-generating the content, I created weighted tables that allowed on the spot generation of many aspects of the game world.

Note that weighted tables are key here,  e.g., the odds for each option on the table are not equal, they are weighted to reflect their commonality in the game world. Thus, this isn’t complete randomization, it’s randomization within a set of options that are determined by the nature of the game world.

In addition to allowing the referee to present a large game setting without getting overwhelmed by the details, it also gives the game some variety at each individual table. For example, spell casters with spell selections determined by random generation are tactically opaque, e.g., you are unable to predict what spells you enemy casters will have, as spells are randomly determined.

This has a myriad of benefits for game play.

Another benefit of randomized tables is the possibility of solo play. All aspects of character generation, encounter creation, faction interplay, every aspect of the game is driven by weighted random tables, so it is possible to play solo without a referee if desired.

The last benefit to this randomization is spontaneity, not only are the players surprised by what happens, but so too can the referee be surprised by what happens. When running games, it is very easy to fall into patterns that become predictable and unappealing for you and your players. Randomization keeps things fresh.

2. In-Play Randomization

There are two kinds of randomization in-play of interest here, encounter reaction rolls, and general odds rolls for actions. Both require active interpretation of prompts by the referee.

NPC Encounter Reaction Rolls - Bhakashal expands upon the traditional role of the encounter reaction mechanic by extending it to all encounters in the game world, not just those between parties in “parley”. Encounter reaction rolls are a mechanism for resolving NPC and monster actions that allow the referee to use weighted randomization to choose rather than choosing responses themselves.

Bargaining with the merchant for a new sword? Encounter reaction rolls indicate if the merchant will be giving you a hard time. Ask the caravan master to detour the caravan to allow the party to investigate a ruin? Encounter reaction rolls determine if you are left to your own devices.

As a general rule, an encounter reaction roll is made whenever a NPC has to make a decision, there is a conversation going back and forth, and when the conversation leads to the NPC having to decide about something, the roll is made.

Any given conversation will have a roll made, then the conversation takes a new direction based  on the roll, and later in the conversation another roll will be made, until the conversation ends through actions on the part of the participants.

The chief advantage to this system is that the referee is called upon to interpret the result in question, and in doing so will end up filling out some aspect of the game world. My favorite example of this happened when a group of PCs where purchasing mounts, when the reaction roll came from the merchant it was very positive, so he gave them a terrific deal.

However, as a referee I have to interpret that result, why would a merchant give this random group of PCs a good deal? I decided on the spot the merchant had been robbed recently, so he had to move stock in order to make the gold necessary to pay off his debtors and suppliers.

The party asked why they were being given such a deal, the merchant shared the information, and they decided to help the guy out. And that became their first adventure.

In a more “traditional” game the purchasing of mounts could be resolved by email between sessions, or it would be a matter of the referee looking up the price and telling the PC, or perhaps adjusting based on the setting economics. But it would be a passive, simple roll or determination. In Bhakashal, there is an encounter, and an encounter reaction roll shapes the response of NPCs to PC actions. Introducing encounter reaction rolls to our game fundamentally changed the way we played, as it meant that:

a)        predicting outcomes became harder

b)       there was no default  to combat in regular NPC encounters

These things meant that the PCs gathered more information, formed more alliances, and generally looked at NPC interaction differently.

 

Monster and Animal Encounter Reaction Rolls – Bhakashal also has encounter reaction rolls for monsters. These are based on the premise that monsters and animals will not automatically attack everything they encounter. Monsters and animals are not stupid, they don’t attack large groups unless the have the numbers, they don’t eat everything they encounter, etc. Bhakashal uses a weighted table to determine how animals/monsters react to threats, the weighting does make them tend towards hostility, but it leaves open the possibility of peaceful interaction, or just fleeing the scene, so every encounter isn’t guaranteed to end in violence.

General Odds Rolls for Actions

NPCs have to make decisions all of the time, and there are times when those actions are not immediately spurred on by player actions. So for example, a PC thief is watching a potential mark who is in their home. The home has a strongbox, and the thief is waiting for the mark to move out of the room where the strongbox is located so they can enter and try to steal it’s contents.

How long does the thief have to wait?

This may seem like a trivial decision, but there are profound game play and fairness implications to these sorts of decisions. If you decide that the NPC mark stays put a long time, the odds of the PC being discovered increase. If you make them move sooner, the PC has better odds. Referees make decisions like this all the time, and depending  on how you rule, they can have a strong impact on the game play for the PCs. A referee who routinely makes the mark stay put a long time makes casing and stealing from marks much more challenging, the ref that moves things along fast makes it much easier.

Essentially, any of these decisions impact play outside of the application of the rules, if you make these decisions by fiat, there is room for bias, or at the very least predictability on the referees part. If you randomize these decisions, then there is less room for bias, and greater unpredictability.

Gygax suggests randomizing aspects of play not directly covered by the rules, and Bhakashal embraces this idea enthusiastically. This sort of randomization is also a fecund source for creating the lore and environment of the game world.

Take another example, the PCs were travelling with a caravan, and the caravan came to a section of the route that had rough terrain that would make them vulnerable to attack while passing through. However, the most expedient route around this terrain would delay them by an extra 2 days, the least expedient route would delay by 3 days. What does the caravan do?

This is important as bandits monitor the rough terrain for travellers they can waylay, and the odds of encountering someone (friend or foe) on short detour are greatest. So, there are advantages and disadvantages to both options. At this point I would randomize the choices available:

1 – Take a much longer detour (safest, longest time)

2-3 – Continue through the rough area (most dangerous, fastest)

4-6 – Take shorter detour around the rough area (second most dangerous, second fastest)

 

The idea here is that the caravan master will want to minimize delays but maximize safety, arriving late is a big problem, arriving without your goods is a bigger problem, so this is reflected in the weighting of the odds, where the third option is the most likely.

Importantly, I narrate these choices to the party before rolling in the open for the results. This gives them the opportunity to suggest other options I may not have considered. For example, say one of the PCs suggests using an illusion to deceive any potential bandits. That is something that the caravan master would not have come up with, so it can be added to the list when suggested.

 

Once the roll is made, the referee has to interpret the result. So, say we rolled that the caravan master has decided to push through the rough, dangerous area, the referee would have to explain that decision if the PCs confronted the caravan master. That means the referee will have to pull on the threads of the game world to determine why this decision was made. Explaining the results of rolls is almost as much fun as making them. It can be an opportunity for role-play (the caravan master has something to prove to his boss), or an opportunity to drop adventure hooks (the caravan master is becoming reckless as he has debt collectors on his tail and delays let them catch up).

 

I have adopted this process for all of these sorts of decisions in the game, and it has led to some of the most interesting gaming experiences. I find that one of the biggest challenges of being a referee is making an almost endless stream of decisions about the game that aren’t really outlined in the rules. For years I just picked based on instinct, or went with a default decision to save time and effort. That sort of thing gets dull and predictable really fast, and in doing so breaks immersion in an important way. The game world feels less real if you can call what is going to happen all the time.

 

Randomization of these in game interstices, the spaces that are not explicitly part of the rules but a significant part of game play, makes the game far more fun, unpredictable and gives it a kind of depth that is hard to emulate.

 

It also lessens the possibility of the referee being biased against the PCs one way or the other. You have all no doubt played with the referee who always ends up making these sorts of decisions in a way that is harmful to the PCs.

PC - “Are there any ships in the harbor sailing to Monmurg?”

REF  – “No, not today”

PC – “Does the merchant have any young, fast horses in their inventory?”

REF – “I’m afraid not”

PC – “Are there enough branches lying around to start a fire?”

REF– “No, there are not”

Alternately, there is the magical referee, who always seems to answer “yes” to these sorts of questions.

Either referee is doing a disservice to the group, and in many cases may not even be aware of it. And these sorts of decisions make a significant difference to the game play experience. A referee who is constantly ruling against the PCs in these cases creates a game world where the PCs are at a constant disadvantage, luck, skill and planning aside.

Randomization of this kind is not for every referee. You need to be able to list out and assign odds to a small number of options at a moment’s notice. Thing is, I find that many people do this anyway when they are trying to make a decision about what an NPC is about to do.

Bhakashal explodes this process for all to see, then randomizes the results to make it exciting and unpredictable. And even more than all of that, it makes the process fair. By opening it up to the players, and rolling in the open, the players and the referee can see that there is no bias in the result. Any bias that there is can be found in the generation of the list of options, and as the players are given an opportunity to become involved in the process, the bias is at the very least acceptable to all at the table, which is all you can really ask for.

I think that the big advantage for me as a referee is that I find coming up with options and assigning odds to be easy and making choices to be hard. That difficulty is, in part, due to the fact that after decades of running games I became aware how much these sorts of decisions accumulate to shape the direction of play. I don’t want to have that sort of influence at the table, I want to shape the overall options to fit the game world and environment, but I don’t want to determine them completely, as it gives me outsized influence in what happens at the table.

Randomization minimizes this area of referee influence, and makes the game far more independent and immersive. Both the players and the referee get the sense that the game world is independent of them, and thus both more “real” and fairer.  This latter point has been one that my players have told me is important to them. They know I’m not “stacking the deck” and making things either easier or harder on the PCs. Instead, by using weighted tables and weighted odds distribution, the dice combined with the environment determine how hard things will be. The players find this combination to be particularly satisfying, they know when they overcome challenges that they were not coddled or punished, but instead they rose to a challenge and bested it, fair and square.

Building Bhakashal – Improvisation and Down Time

This Wednesday’s session was an awesome example of a whole host of interesting aspects about game play in Bhakashal, and a great opportunity to discuss “down time” activities, and hand waving, as the party had just completed an adventure and were transitioning to a new goal.

Let’s dive in.

My Wednesday group has just finished an adventure in the desert. They found the “Forgotten City”, and while they were there they opened up a hell gate. They negotiated with a pit fiend, releasing it in exchange for loot. However, the fiend betrayed them and fled to a desert city where a warlock resided, looking for revenge. The warlock showed up with the fiend in pursuit, a battle happened (where the PCs ditched the warlock and let him fight the fiend on his own) and the warlock left.

The party had travelled to the desert by accompanying a caravan. That caravan went on without them when they travelled the last distance to the Forgotten City. They knew where the caravan would be over the next week or two and knew that it would be in the desert city of Esham for several days so they could meet it there and head back to Bhakashal with them.

Travel is never hand waved in Bhakashal, they had a 5-day window to get to Esham and meet the caravan, if they missed the window, they missed the caravan, that’s how time matters in Bhakashal.

They travelled for 3 days to get to Esham, including encounters with giant scorpions and another caravan.

A few words about the “jewel of the desert”, Esham.

When I have to generate something as large as a city, I draw on the ample resources available to me as a Bhakashal referee, as Bhakashal is compatible with most old school source material. I found an old issue of Dragon that had an adventure, “Barnacus, city in peril”. I filed off the name, reskinned the city to fit a desert environment, and used that, rather than generating something from scratch.

That meant I:

1.      ---  Replaced all the elves and dwarves with equivalent Bhakashal groups

2.      --- Changed the mounts from horses to giant lizards

3.      --- I customized the random encounter tables: I rolled and determined that the powerful warlock (Haegemal the Heliotrope) who was attacked by the pit fiend in the previous sessions resided in Esham and might end up discovering the party and “having a word”, and I included an option for the PCs to meet the adventuring party they had met in the desert (who had retreated to Esham a few days before the party when they parted ways).

4.     ---  I factionalized the city, for example, I decided that the thieves guild in Esham ruled over a number of gangs, each gang competed for status and power within the guild, essentially the guild played them off against each other, taking a cut from everyone.

5.       --- I planted a few potential adventure seeds that the party might entirely ignore or pick up, for example, I decided that the city stayed closed for the night from midnight to dawn as they had an undead problem (a vampire with a group of jackalweres had been about in the area, the city leaders had sealed off the city at night to keep them out but weren’t telling the citizens to avoid panic).

There was one problem though, Barnacus is a city on a plain with a river going by, how was I to reconcile that? I could have heavily edited the map to clean things up, but that was a lot of work, and I was pressed for time.

One of the things I have come to realize about refereeing is that my job is to INTERPRET the prompts I am given. Since this city had a body of water, I had to interpret that in some way. I decided that the city was ruled by a bit of a megalomaniac and was within about 3 miles of the desert border, so they built a canal from the hills to the city, fed by water from the mountains. Haegemal bound a powerful water elemental to the canal to ensure that water would flow freely from the icy mountain heights to the canal every year.

This immediately created a host of implications, since desert dwellers want water, the canal would have to be monitored regularly with patrols otherwise everyone would be trying to get water to use for irrigation and other things and would dry it up or destroy it. Taking drinking water would be fine, and indeed, Esham’s ruler became immediately popular after allowing this to happen, giving parched, weary travellers a source of refreshment. However, anything else would be a problem, and the canal would have to be policed, drawing away troops and resources and creating dissent amongst the city’s population, who grew to see it as a profligate waste of resources.

One map feature had suddenly given my desert city a unique feature that had factional implications.

Now, since this was a brief stop before leaving on the caravan, we could have resolved everything with a few quick die rolls and a “two days pass and now you leave”.

But that’s not how we do it in Bhakashal, instead, we play it out.

The party arrived in Esham at about 2 am. They were blocked from entering until dawn, but not told why. This plants a seed of interest in the group as to what the problem is, but they aren’t willing to push it, and wait until dawn to enter. They pay the entry tax, tipping the guard who lets them in, and in exchange they are given a recommendation to stay at a particular inn.

They find a stable to take care of their mounts and get rooms at the inn. These interactions are simple and quick, governed by encounter reaction rolls with various modifiers based on them being outsiders, etc. Most of these interactions go fairly quickly, and unless the PCs want to try to get information from the NPC, or haggle a deal, they take up little time. Sometimes a conversation will prove fruitful and last longer, sometimes it will lead to more.

One of them asks around and finds the caravaner’s guild (a feature in my game world, every city has guilds and a guild dedicated to caravans) and through them locates the caravan they are joining to return to Bhakashal. The caravan master, Craight the Swift, is pleased to see them again (fearing they would  have died in the Forgotten City, or been gone too long to rejoin them) and they share details of their adventure. Craight has both saved and been saved by the PCs, so he is well liked, and the RP was a lot of fun. That took about 5 minutes.

Now that they have secured their spot on the caravan home, they have 2 days to kill before their caravan leaves, what are they to do for those 2 days? I asked the players and they decided on a few things:

1.        Several of them wanted to gamble, they were laden with gold from their adventures, and in real life the lads had been playing poker a lot, so they wanted to find a gambling house and play some poker.

2.        One of them wanted to go to the market and by an expensive, high quality “executioners hood” cloak

With all the talk of 1:1 time games downtime has become a bit of a buzz topic on Twitter. Bhakashal doesn’t run on 1:1 time, for a number of reasons. My players are not interested in making sure they exit the “dungeon” by sessions end, switching back and forth between groups when one group is in time jail, and since travel is ubiquitous in Bhakashal, the presence of “safe spaces” to retreat to isn’t always a given.

Having said that, Bhakashal is premised on the idea that time matters, and that you don’t hand wave the time required to do most tasks, instead, you play through them.

These are perfect examples, gambling with your newfound gold and buying things (e.g., “going shopping”) are standard examples of the kind of thing that many 1:1 time games relegate to back and forth email exchanges to “speed things up”.

That’s not how we roll!

The party split and we dealt with both groups separately.

First the gamblers. Three of the party members when to a gambling house, the first one they picked was the high-end place, so they wouldn’t look out of place dropping big bets.

They immediately sat down at a table when several of the players there left. I created two NPCs on the spot, a Chitin (insect folk) Mercenary named Mulk “the Cobra” Yigil, and a Saan (lizard-folk) Thaumaturge (Bhakashal Thief/Magic-user) named “Diamond” Drigart. One of the key things to remember when running sandbox games is that you don’t need to fully stat NPCs on the spot, you certainly can, or you can draw on a pregen that you have already made, but you can also just pick a race, name and class and only detail further as you need. For flair I gave the Mercenary a pet puma that sat at his feet named Grim.

Now, if this was a downtime activity in some games the referee would have say rolled dice and resolved the activity quickly, saying, “you play poker for a few hours with the locals and manage to come away ahead, with an extra 30 gp in your pocket”, or something like that.

No thanks.

We played a few rounds of poker, using dice to indicate bets (e.g., when you bet 5 gp, you place a die with a “5” up in the pot). I love running “games within games” like this, as it gives me an opportunity to run NPCs that are sources of information about the game world. We played 4 hands of poker (PCs won 2 hands, NPCs the other two), with the party betting high as they were flush. The players LOVE gambling, and love having the dosh to play big.

The great thing about NPCs is that the party doesn’t have any idea of their LEVEL, so they treat them with some respect, their pronouncements take on a sinister edge, and they do lots of speculating that I can draw on if I’m stuck. Through conversation while gambling the PCs found out about the public distaste for the costs of maintaining the canal (“A canal in the desert, they are MAD”) and that the “no admission at night” rule was linked to religious extremists who were pressuring the governor to adhere to their beliefs (not true). Unfortunately, they stopped playing before they found out that Haegemal lived in the city.

I made a note on the random encounter table to increase their pick pocketing odds after they left the gambling house, as there were thieves afoot who looked for recently arrived adventurers throwing around gold in gambling houses. This all took about 20 min.

Halfway through the game we switched over to the PC who was going to buy a cloak. This particular PC was a mercenary, the party big boi, he has the most HP and does the most melee damage in combat, with his favorite weapon, a big bardiche. He went to the market and looked around to find a tent where they were selling find quality clothing. It was early evening and quite busy (evening is cooler so it brings out many more people), and the market was filled with locals, visitors… and thieves!

I rolled to determine how long it would take the PC to find a tent selling what he wanted and got two turns. Each turn I rolled to see if the PC was pick-pocketed. In the second turn it came up positive. I rolled to see if it was successful and if it was noticed, it was successful and unnoticed!

The PC went into the tent to look at cloaks. There was some discussion with the vendor (an old, blind Chitin named Hijim who shared his shop with a pair of oversized pet spiders to dissuade shoplifting!) The player loved that he was almost blind and they had a great conversation, eventually they decided on a price. The PC reached into their pouch and found the bottom had been cut out and there were no coins left!

Since the theft had occurred outside of the shop, the thief was long gone. Interestingly, the PC lost about 50gp, not a trivial sum for most, but for an adventurer who had just come back with thousands of GP of loot, it was inconsequential.

However, they were pissed about being stolen from, so they wanted blood!

I rolled a reaction roll for the shopkeeper when he found out that the player had been robbed. The result was strongly positive. My job as a ref is to interpret that. Perhaps he was worried that a report that someone was pick-pocketed outside of his tent would get around and push away customers, perhaps he had been robbed before and was still angry, perhaps he was worried that regular thefts near his tent would make the city watch suspicious he was in cahoots.

The shopkeeper told the PC, “The pick pockets in the market don’t keep your coins on them, in case the city watch collar them and find their ill-gotten gains, they usually go down to the docks and give their loot to their handlers and return to the market.”

With that, he was off to the docks.

When he arrived, he found a group of 8 on the dock, four were emberi (human) thieves that worked the market, four were chitin enforcers (3^rd and 4^th level fighters) and one was the group leader (an ogre). The PC walked up and demanded that they return his money.

At that point I made a reaction roll, and it came up slightly positive, so the leader told two of his enforcers to “get rid of this guy”, thinking to scare him off, and not wanting to bring down the city watch on them for slaying visitors unnecessarily.

Two 4^th level Chitin fighters surrounded the PC, a 7^th level fighter. The PC gets 3 attacks every 2 rounds, and does decent damage with the bardiche. The chitin drew four short swords each, allowing them 4 attacks per round with penalties to the “off hands”

The chitin with the better bonuses faced front, the other chitin stayed on the PCs flank and back, negating DEX and shield bonuses to AC, and giving to hit bonuses when attacking from the rear. The fighter gets an AC bonus using  the longest weapon (the bardiche is longer)

Initiative was rolled, I rolled terribly (a 6 for each chitin, the worst possible result) and the PC rolled well (a 1, the best possible result), and even with weapon speeds added, the PC attacked first. He swung and missed with a roll of 2. For his second attack he rolled a hit.

In Bhakashal when you hit the enemy for the first time you roll their HP on the spot. The PCs then realized this guy was 4^th level, and they got cocky. I reminded them that a 4^th level fighter is nothing to sneeze at, and two are definitely a threat. They weren’t worried.

The bardiche strike did enough damage to reduce the Chitin to just above half their full HP in one swing! Then it was their turn. 8 attacks in total, two hit, and two more were critical hits. Since any hit in Bhakashal can be a critical hit, any hit can turn the tide

The damage done wasn’t significant, d6 per short sword with bonuses of +1 to damage for one and +3 to damage for the other. I roll for criticals, in this case there was an extra attack and a double damage. The extra attack was a regular hit, so in total that was three hits, one for double damage.

Not nearly enough to down our tank, but it did drop him to about 2/3 of hit total HP in one attack, it got his attention, and I could see the wheels turning. We rolled again for initiative, this time he lost. Initiative can chain like this, due to the dice you get two attack routines in a row. The chitin got 8 more attacks, this time 3 hit and 2 were criticals.

I rolled for the three regular hits, and then for the criticals, this time I got temporary blinding and knock back. The knock back felled the PC to the ground, costing their next action, and their eyes were blinded by blood. I rolled up the damage from the criticals and added it, the PC was now down below 1/3 of their total HP, and the next attack belonged to the chitin.

You could see it on his face, the player realized that the two combatants surrounding him gave them bonuses, and that 8 attacks per round was more than enough to ensure that at least some of them hit, and some of them would be criticals. And criticals can shift the tide.

At this point I rolled an encounter reaction roll for the leader of the gang, and he decided to call off his men and tell the PC to scram, he didn’t want to deal with the city watch tonight. The PC was suitably bloodied and beaten, cut in multiple places and blinded by blood, sitting on his ass in the dirt.

“If anyone asks, Nulgam Nix’s crew, Baya and Gurst gave you a thrashing, you blooded Gurst, next time he sees you he has my permission to cut off your arm.”

The PC fled, found the party, and promptly reported the thievery and assault to the city watch.

Now we have an enmity, and a potential encounter to add to the random encounter list, the PCs running into Nulgam’s crew, and if the run into Gurst, it could get ugly.

That’s where we stopped.

Sessions like these are the reason why I hand wave virtually nothing in the game. Yes, some encounters can be brief and involve little RP, you don’t HAVE to interact more than the bare minimum, and depending on the rolls many of these encounters will be largely uneventful. But all contain the potential for something more. Some of our best gaming experiences have happened due to a random roll at the merchant’s tent, or while gambling with the crew of the ship.

They also have the benefit of making the game world seem more real, just like 1:1 time makes the game world seem real, playing through activities like this and interacting with NPCs in the process also make the game world feel more real. It provides opportunities to learn more about the game world and the immediate environment, factions, etc., and shows the players that nothing is given to them, they have to go out and get it.

Adventure awaits!