Building Bhakashal – The End of the Gaming Year and Summer Break

My two after school groups have wrapped up for the summer, it looks like both want to continue next year and may want to do a summer camp later in August as well.

But for now, my weekly D&D games are paused for the summer.

I will be playing with my online group and my home group intermittently for the rest of the summer, so there will still be some D&D in my life.

Some observations about the last year.

Both of my groups have been playing with me for 5 years now, the groups have had some additions and some departures. Both groups are larger than they were when I started. And both groups have younger siblings of older kids who played with me as well.

Generational D&D, right at the table.

Even though there have been new players added to both groups, many of the player have been with me for a while. PCs have gone from 1^st to 8^th / 9^th level over 5 years of regular once a week play for 2 hours a week, 10 months of the year. That’s 80 hours of table time per year, 400 hours of table time to level from 1^st to 8^th/9^th level.

That’s called paying your dues.

Bhakashal is an unforgiving setting, if you fool around, you will likely end up dead. Even if you don’t, the threat of death is always around. Most of my players run multiple PCs, and we averaged about 3-4 PC deaths and around 30-40 NPC/henchmen deaths per game year.

My players have learned to evaluate all possible encounters, to be ready to walk away from distractions, to plan out their actions to avoid danger, or at least manage it, and to fight hard when they have to fight.

Since Bhakashal uses encounter reaction rolls for all interactions with animals, monsters and NPCs, hostility is not a foregone conclusion. However, by the same token, any interaction has the potential to go south if it isn’t handled well.

Because all spells and magic items are rolled for randomly, the PCs can’t predict what their foes will be bringing to the table. This has taught them to strike fast if they are going to strike, and to give their foes respect. It also means every fight is something new. You can’t rely on your opponents always using fireball or lightning bolt, or on always having the right magic item to deal with every threat.

Sometimes it’s only luck and planning that saves you, as you can’t count on your spells and items to be calibrated to your foes.

From a playtesting perspective, this year was the year of faction and domain play. The PCs in both of my groups became Bhakashal nobility this year, after each completed a significant task for their House. My Friday group created a teleportation circle that allows them to go back and forth to the Bhakashal underworld and establish a foothold for their House in the land of eternal darkness. My Thursday group united the two thieves’ guilds (one in the city, one in the Raosk) and took them over.

Both were big, bold, ambitious goals and were well met. This gaming year they took advantage of their new status as nobility.

It was more challenging than they imagined, as they entered into a level of play where other people at the House could be aligned for or against them, and other Houses could do the same. Suddenly it wasn’t that there were monsters everywhere, it’s that there were rivals and allies everywhere, and the players had to navigate the dangers of House politics as well as monsters.

Without any prompting from me, players in both of my games immediately took the same approach, they identified faction leaders within their Houses and sought to curry favor with them so they would support the PCs in their plans. Though they are ambitious and want to be successful, they are already aware that that means forming alliances and pushing back against rivals.

We had a few honor duels this past year, PCs fought in the Bhakashal arena to defend their honor. In the case of my Friday group the PCs won, defeating a House Lord who had opposed the interests of their House. It was a big upset and put them on the map. My Thursday group got spanked, a high level warlock from their own House defeated them in arena combat and got them to give up their control of the guilds in exchange for their lives.

This year was also the year of exploring and interacting with the marshlands around the city, each Noble House has interests in the marshlands, and becoming nobility meant exploring those interests. The random encounter tables, travel rules (land and water) and rules for caravans and ships were all extensively playtested.

Over the last 5 years Bhakashal has had an extended playtest from cradle to grave, from 1^st level PCs to name level PCs, and it has proven generative, immersive and robust. The rules for creating tasks for PCs have been honed, the rules for what happens when the PCs are high enough level to give tasks to lower-level groups have been smoothed out. I’ve said it before, but sandbox style gaming in a well-designed setting is endlessly generative. I pretty much just show up each week with my notes from the last session and we go. Bhakashal was designed that way, to create a factionalized setting and let the PCs loose in it, their actions cascading through the setting and creating challenges and opportunities.

Now that my regular after school groups are down for the summer, its time to get work done on editing for the Setting Manual and the Player’s Guide.

No rest for the wicked!