"Pathfinder Campaign - A Call to Arms - S6" Topic

SESSION 6: REACTIONS

The goblin……..

DM NOTE: A while ago I got some good advice from the folk on TMP to use a monster reaction table. I've adopted the following table from the old school Red Box D&D Basic book (thanks Weasel), 2 = Immediate attack, 3-5 = Hostile, possible attack, 6-8 = Uncertain, monster confused, 9-11 = No attack, monster leaves or considers offers, 12 = Enthusiastic friendship with the following modifiers, -1 for entering someone's home uninvited, -2 previous hostility, current enemies, +2 current alliance, +1 have had previous positive encounters, trading partners etc.

So undertaking a monster reaction roll if I get anything but a 2 = Immediate attack, then we'll go to the Pathfinder diplomacy section and see how Risandor deals with that. Roll 2d6, roll a 2 and a 1 = 3 -1 for entering someone's home uninvited = Immediate attack.

Hahaha well as DM that's funny and a little unexpected (1 in 12 chance I guess) as I figured we'd end up parlaying with the goblins and Risandor using his rather prolific negotiating skills but anyway I guess now we'll see how the boys handle it.

Normally, to make matters simple (especially from a battle reporting and graphics pov), I use a side based initiative system using the slowest member of that party to determine the initiative modifier. For this encounter, or for any encounter where one party or more of the party members is scouting, I'll roll once for the monsters, once for the scout(s) and once for the main party. Should the scout re-join the main party he'll then adopt their initiative order. In this way I won't unduly punish a scout who has a high initiative bonus.

ROUND 1A – RUN RISANDOR RUN

Initiative: Goblins: 2 + 6 bonus = 8, Risandor: 19 + 3 bonus = 22, Party: 6 + 2 bonus =8. Tie between goblins and party, do a straight roll off, goblins = 12, party = 17. Simplify to party (including Risandor) first and then the goblins.

• The lead goblin yells out "BREE-YARK, BREE-YARK" and then all the other goblins yell out in response "BREE-YARK, BREE-YARK."
• Risandor goes pail and begins to back away as he knows that "Bree-yark' means alarm and that the goblins are calling for help.
• Sensing that the gig is up, and hating goblins in any case, Uthalin charges the goblin immediately to his front. He raises his mighty dwarven waraxe above his head and misses as the little goblin ducks.
• Risandor moves back 15ft to get out of the way. As he does so he frees Ansic's charge arc. The big human charges forth and swipes at the same goblin that Uthalin did an he smashes the goblin in the right leg, severing it below the knee as he does 10pts of damage, instantly killing the goblin.
• Sensing an easy victory and not wanting to miss the fun, Cord goes to moves forward and through Ansic to attack the goblins but before he can move Thomas grabs the barbarian by the shoulder and tells him to wait. Thomas then fires an arrow from his short bow over Risandor and pass Ansic towards the western most goblin (incurring a -4 penalty for cover / firing into a combat). He misses as the arrow skitters off the floor.
• Halee yells at Cord to duck and she too fires an arrow from her short bow at the goblin directly to the front of Uthalin but it too misses as she is put off from her shot, not trying to hit the dwarf.

ROUND 2B – A TESTING TIME

• The goblins have taken their first casualty in combat and must test morale. They are not the most courageous of monsters and need to roll a 7 or less on 2d6. They roll an 8 and have obviously seen enough.
• The massive, sudden and unexpected assault by a group of mad men intent upon killing them unnerves the goblins and they break from combat.
• Running east and west they flee but as they turn Uthalin gets an attack of opportunity against the one closer to him. He swings his waraxe and catches the monster square in the back as it turns dealing 10pts of damage and killing it instantly.

AFTER THE BATTLE

The mighty dwarf lets out a howl of victory, reveling in the defeat of his foe.

Cord runs forward to congratulate his two partners reveling in the buffness of it all. Might had overruled weakness and all was good in the world.

Risandor makes a mental note "Well Ris you got yourself out of that one but it was a close thing. Remember that you can't tell the story if you've got your head cut off."

Halee comes forward and starts to quieten them down. "Hey guys, cool it. Shoosh. Now listen. The plan, if you recall, was to talk to them and failing that to try to capture one. Hard to capture one if you keep smashing their heads in. Just sayin."

Cord responds immediately, "Hard to capture one if they just keep running away and, hahaha, who could stand up to us. We're the badest bunch of mofos that ever came to caves. And that's a fact!"

"Ohh jeez" Halee says to herself.

Then just as she is about to respond Thomas interrupts in a wavering voice "What's that?"

Straining their ears, they hear a padding of numerous feet hitting the hard stone ground and then a mighty roar.

"FORM UP" yells Ansic.

The veteran knows that a fight is coming…..a big fight.

DEW

Interesting. Do you have a blog to follow?

Haha, they don't call him "Lucky Ris" back home for nothing!

Let's talk to them, Ris and Halee said ….. Let's chop them into pieces said Uthalin, Cord and Ansic …..

Looks like steel was the answer. At least Risandor has a few other tricks to play that might help in the coming encounter with the rest of the goblins ….

BTW, Ris, Halee is about 30lbs overweight and very plain looking – some might even say ugly.

"Dumpy" is the first word that comes to mind when people see her. Looks like she would be more at home in an apron baking than on a quest.

So, Halee is overweight while Ris is unusually tall and slim(ish) for a Halfling … Thomas is a bit twitchy, Cord likes the "Caves of Chaos" song, Uthalin doesn't like pixies and thinks Thomas is one (or was that a comment about Risandor?)and Ansic is the totally cool headed veteran.

Sounds like a fun group to be travelling dangerous places with!

Sorry about that Mardaddy and you are right.

Hey guys I've got a lot of detail on each of the characters but it's difficult to bring it all out given the medium and my time constraints. Hence why some of the my descriptions are so short and I make a few spelling and diction errors from time to time because I'm only quickly proof reading once before I post. I'm figuring it's better to keep the pace moving a long a bit rather to labour too much over all the details and sometimes I've only literally got an hour to write something and post.

So please chip in with role playing elements as we go along.

Hey Lucky Ris, it would be sweet after this next combat if you're able to put together a little poem or ditty. I'm about 3 rounds into the next combat at the moment and I think before it's done there are going to be some memorable moments.

Dutch – no mate. By my nature I'm pretty much just a wargamer and a part time roleplayer who likes writing and reading the odd battle report. I really only got into doing this because of the amount that I travel for work which limits my ability to have anything physical with me. Hence I developed map making skills, building little tokens for characters and some solo or semi-solo playing rules for myself.

I also got a bit frustrated with some of my previous battle reports that I had written because they were so boring and that sent me onto a bit of a quest to find how to best record and make more interesting battle reports. I felt that better graphics was at least part of the answer. Hence what you've seen here. I'm still on that quest so any constructive feedback would be appreciated.

Actually I took a lot of inspiration from Ed from Two Hour Wargames. That dude has some excellent material. I think I've bought pretty much everything that he's published over the years (well I'm exaggerating, probably 75%). You should check out some of his stuff. He's a great innovator.

DEW

I like to think of Ansic as a rock: He isn't pioneering anything but you know where he stands :-)