Saturday, November 3, 2012

Playing LotFP: Meeting Ooms

Group of two adventurers (player character and non-player character) with one retainer. PC is Elven specialist (combo class) and NPC is Fighter Cleric (combo also). I decided to use The Magnificent Joop van Ooms book as a seed for future adventures.
Elven specialist's name is Liv and fighter-cleric is called Christian B. Yale.

Party is at Amsterdam after they delivered an item there (this happened before game starts, they are 1st levels afterall). First task is to find a place to stay. I ask player to roll d50 for random encounter and a swarm of kids surround them. Christian is a good person so he gives 5cp for the kids. Liv doesn't but she notices one kid standing behind Christian. That kid is actually a pickpocket with 2/6 skill but he fails. Liv doesn't notice that attempted theft but she is suspicious and commands kid away. The swarm of kids move to next person. Really big black man in extra fancy clothes. And they go to an inn.

Next morning in breakfast a well dressed man invites them to a party. They just need to ask Joop van Ooms anywhere and they'll find the place. Gotta buy fancy clothes and get ready.

During the day Liv is asked to sign a petit to clear harbor area from trash but a set of jugglers are distracting the very moment. Liv is suspicious and doesn't want to sign it. This was a random encounter also.

In the evening they find easily Ooms residence because it really stands out. Inside there is a party going. Same man who invited Liv and Christian is surrounded by four ladies. The man called Henry XIII isn't that comely but chicks like his attention. Henry asks girls to leave and he greets new guests. Liv and Christian also see the same black man dancing in his cool clothes. His dance is a mix of traditional European dance and tribal African dances. He is really good and there's people watching him.

Third person is Joop van Ooms surrounded by some people who talk to him. Joop doesn't look that interested but he is really good in this kind of conversations. Joop dismisses the people to meet new visitors.

Joop has a conversation with Liv and Christian. Asking questions and telling stuff. He decides to show his 1st floor gallery room with "practice" art. Then he asks if Liv and Christian as adventurers would like to do a job for him. To retrieve a document of information. What kind of information? Information of some kind of book (The Book from The God That Crawls). Liv and Christians agree to take this mission.

Some Thoughts

Only dice rolling were random encounters. Lots of talking and stuff. You don't necessarily need dice for a good session.
Nothing important really happened. This was like an intro for next adventure (Dead Frost Doom) and all the adventures to become.
I bought The Magnificent Joop van Ooms because of this. To kick campaign going! Also player death could suck, but Joop is a magnificent painter, so that thing is handled now!

Player doesn't know this yet, but to Norway they will travel! And there's Death Frost Doom they need to "enter" to gain that document.

2 comments:

Sami Koponen said...

"Also player death could suck, but Joop is a magnificent painter, so that thing is handled now!"

If you have read Raggi's scenarios, you know that the player character's death is nothing to worry about. Scenarios are filled with all sorts of curses, traps and other stuff that will fuck the character up so bad that suicide seems like a good idea.

Let's take DFD for an example: the player character may gain random insanity; be cursed to make two to-hit rolls and pick the worse; be cursed so that she/he cannot receive magical healing; lose any amount of ability scores; de-age to a five-year-old; sacrifice a fellow character; gain leprosy; etc.

Is your player ready for that?

Unknown said...

Well I am running LotFP more like scenario to scenario and if character dies he can continue with loosing half of his exp. Point is that no new character is a necessarity to continue.

I want to run these adventures more than let's say roleplay.