Dying Is A Pain: I Don't Recommend It

I've died twice now in our TFT campaign. The first time Krupke was hacked up with a double damage roll by an orc with a battle axe. The second time was in our most recent session.

We have been exploring a wizard's tower. We have climbed many levels so far and fought a variety of monsters and dealt with a few traps. On the highest level we reached so far were two demonic creatures called Pink Horrors. They fight with their teeth and claws. There are several other things in the room: the skeleton of a giant bird, two dead imps, and three circles at various points in the room. These circles are marked with magical runes. We decide to avoid stepping in them.

Anyhow, about the me being dead part. The two PH charge us. One attacks Krupke (me) and the other attacks our friendly Tin Woodsman. We manage to kill the first one easily enough, but as he goes poof in a cloud of acrid sulfurous smoke, two smaller Blue Horrors appear to replace him. One engages me in hand-to-hand combat. It's a smart move on his part. I have to drop my sword and shield and fail to draw my dagger. Before I can get back to my feet, it has done an excessive amount of damage and I am dead (-4 strength).

I'll say this for my group. They don't give up on one another. They manage to kill the other horrors and try to heal me. We play with the house rule that our physicker can heal two points of each separate wound. I had three so I got back 6 points through healing. The team also poured 4 healing potions down my throat. I was alive again but still banged up.

As the others explored the room the rogue tested the magic circles by throwing dead imps into them. The imp bounced off an invisible wall in the first circle. The third circle did nothing of note, but when our wizard stepped in it he felt refreshed as his fatigue disappeared. When the dead imp was thrown in the second circle it came back to life and managed to escape as arrows flew. Krupke stepped into the circle and was completely healed. The rest of the party did the same if they had any other wounds to heal. The only one that didn't benefit from the healing circle was our tin woodsman. Our jack-of-all-trades physicker is also a mechanician. He was able to make some repairs to our tin Gollum, but not to full health.

We still have at least one more level of the tower to explore, but for now we go back down the stairs and explore and loot rooms we had bypassed.

Besides dying occasionally I am having tremendous fun in this campaign. If you have a good GM, and we do, he provides you with ways to keep going if you are smart enough to find and use them.

How much is that Gryphon in the window?

Day 2 of our campaign started in the most boring way imaginable. Archer and Serato think it would be a good idea to fix up the abandoned bakery and start making bread to generate cash. Granted I have not played the game for a long time, but I thought adventurers, you know, went on adventures, fought orcs, and looted the bodies of the vanquished. Bake bread?

So we (Lord I can't believe I'm saying this) started repairing the roof, cleaning the floors, and visiting the local miller to find out how much his flour costs. Archer, the female rogue, is spending gold, not silver mind you, but gold, to pick up rumors, hire urchins to run errands, and to pay some locals to work on the roof. The other PCs are wondering how come she has so much cash.

After awhile we decide to explore the town some more. Asking questions in the market square we learn the name of this town is Gromley and it is on the isle of Bridonia. The merchant Ogden is preparing to take his wagon west in two days to East Riding and hires us to be guards.

There is a small abandoned taxidermy shop a couple of doors down from the bakery. We enter and see a number of strange creatures on dusty shelves along the walls. Jackalopes, two-headed goats, and a three-eyed fish sit beside more mundane, squirrels, birds, and lizards frozen in time. In the center of the room though is a large 2-hex figure with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. Serato detects some magic about. Archer spots the gold, jeweled collar around the beast's neck.  He takes it off.

Bad move. The gryphon comes alive and attacks. The dwarf, Holokka Zolukka, is in front and takes the brunt of the attack. Jack throws a dagger from outside the door. Serato tries to cast a magic fist.
Archer fires an arrow at close range, and I jab its side with my spear. Other than causing a few feathers to fly we are not doing much damage. Then Archer gets the idea to light a torch and strike the gryphon with it. The beast screams as it ignites. Archer strikes again and again as we continue harassing it with our weapons. Finally it falls and burns on the floor. Jack heals some of Holokka Zolukka's wounds. Jack believes the gryphon's collar is worth several hundred silver pieces. We are tired and rest for the night in the shop. The ogre's men are still looking for us.

Growth and Experience

In any RPG it's important to start with a character who can stay alive and hopefully grow in experience throughout the campaign. When I joined the campaign I am in now I considered my starting character carefully. After all 32-point characters can die easily, even when fighting another relatively weak character or NPC.

I took advantage of a lists of TFT Archetypes posted by Carlisle Childress and created my character. I wanted one that was balanced between strength (ST), dexterity (DX), and intelligence (IQ) so I choose a Town Guard and named him Krupke for the police officer of the same name in West Side Story.

ST11 DX11(10) IQ10 MA10(8) Knife, Sword, Polearms(2), Shield, Shield Expertise(2), Unarmed Combat I, Alertness(2) Job: Police Regular
Spear(1d), Short sword(2d-1), Dagger, Small Shield(2*), Cloth Armor(1)

I made one small change. Instead of a dagger, I gave him a billy stick to club ruffians with when not using his spear or short sword. Krupke got cut up a lot in the early encounters with nuisance creatures, orcs, and goblins. Cloth armor and a small shield only absorb two hits of damage, but he stayed alive.

Our GM didn't hand out large piles of experience points (XP) in the first sessions either and rightly so. We were green and we showed it. We hadn't earned lots of points yet. After two sessions I had enough points though to expend 100 XP to raise my DX. I figured if I could increase the odds of hitting the other guy first, then maybe he wouldn't hit me. The next 100 XP went to ST. 

About that time Krupke was getting dissatisfied with his spear. Spears have an advantage in a charge attack, but otherwise only do one die (1d6) of damage. I traded mine in for a broadsword. I got lucky there because I soon discovered it was a +1 damage fine broadsword.

To bring this post to a conclusion the next 200 XP went to DX and I changed to leather armor and after collecting more XP I spent 300 on IQ again. That brings Krupke to ST12, DX 13(11), IQ11. He will have the intelligence to begin studying the Weapon Expertise talent which cost 1500 XP.

Growth takes time in this game and if you grow one attribute too quickly you do so at the expense of the others.

Trials & Tribulations

Looking at my stats I can see that several of my visitors have left comments. 
First: thank you.
Second: sorry.
I can't see them and I am guessing you can't either. It's one of those curses of a new blog I guess. I'll keep poking a stick at the settings until something snaps (most likely my nerves) and eventually we'll get it fixed. 
Thanks for your patience.

Down The Rabbit Hole -- Our TFT Campaign

Before I knew what was happening I fell through a gate. My name is Alos Krupke, a second-year recruit in the city guard. I was running down a thief in a back alley when poof, he disappeared and then I too went poof. I was no longer is my beloved city of Bigappal, but in the center of a market area in a grimy looking village. As I looked around there were four others, all with looks of confusion on their faces. 

We introduced ourselves. Jack, an affable halfling, was a merchant, mechanician, and healer. Archer was a female rogue who was somewhat vague about her past and looked suspiciously like the thief I was chasing. Holokka Zolukka was a rather loud, heavily armored, dwarf warrior. Serato, the elf, seemed the most confused. He was wearing a wizard’s cloak and pointed hat. He said he came from the land of Disney where he pretended to be a sorcerer’s apprentice, but now he wondered if he really was magical. We suggested he try casting a simple spell so he tries a summon a scout. A small rodent with unusually large, round ears appears. Serato is surprised and pleased, and wonders what other spells he knows.

It is getting dark and we enter the local inn to get dinner, information, and a warm bed. The next day we explore the town a bit. The castle is the keep of an ogre who rules the town. Once a month a lottery is held and his brigands choose an unlucky guest of honor at the ogre’s dinner table. There is a wizard’s guild house as well as several merchants in town. But there are also a lot of abandoned buildings in various states of disrepair. We rent space in a worn-down tenement and take on a job to remove the Stirges* that are attacking people in the area. The stirges are nesting in the chimney of the old, abandoned bakery next door. We light a fire in the oven and drive them out. They attack us and we kill a few before they fly off. Krupke’s first blood is spilled at the beak of a nuisance creature. The first day ends with us hiding in the woods instead of sleeping in our tenement room out of fear for the ogre’s ruffians looking for us.

NEXT: How much for that Gryphon in the window?

*Stirges are not a TFT creature, but a D&D creature our GM has adopted for our campaign as a nuisance creature. They have an affinity to Krupke’s blood. He’s been attacked twice. 

This horrid flying creature looks like a cross between a large bat and an oversized mosquito. Its legs end in sharp pincers, and its long, needle-like proboscis slashes the air as it seeks its next meal.Stirges feed on the blood of living creatures, attaching and draining them slowly. Although they pose little danger in small numbers, packs of stirges can be a formidable threat, reattaching as quickly as their weakening prey can pluck them off. (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_SRD:Stirge)

Learning From Experience

My PC had to learn some rules the hard way. Like the time he took on an Orc with a battle axe, he learned that it is sometimes better to use the DEFEND option rather than attack, particularly when the enemy is stronger and rolling to hit before you. Krupke almost died that day if it weren't for the actions of the other PCs who dragged him to safety, bandaged him and gave him several healing potions. After that incident he developed some rules for facing adversaries.

Much Better

I've been playing with the theme and layout settings for this blog and finally I think I have what I want. If you are stumbling onto this now, again welcome.

I'm working on a journal of our current campaign in story form. So I don't plan on being heavy on the attribute details of the characters or of the NPCs and monsters we meet. I will go ahead and give you the setup for the story in game terms.

When our group first got together we decided that we wanted our adventures to be mostly above ground in a sandbox put together by the GM. We all started with 32-point characters and told to arm ourselves however we pleased from the equipment list and roll 1d6 x 10 for the number of silver pieces we carried in our pouches. We created our backstories for when we would meet in the campaign.

Like our PCs we all were unfamiliar to an extent with each other. We were 'dropped' through an erratically functioning gate into the center of the town of Gromly on an island called Bridonia. We banded together and immediately try to figure out how to keep alive in this strange place and make some money.

So far we've explored a number of other villages in the surrounding area. We've done this while hiring out as guards for a local merchant as he travels with his wagon. This has brought us to near death more than once as we slowly gain experience, both in XP and real world experience learning to be better players. I for one was rusty, having not played the game in 36 years. My son plays D&D, but never played TFT before. One guy is a very experienced player, another is a college student with experience in many different games, and one other is more like me.

Lastly we are extremely luck to have a GM who has more experience than all of us rolled together. He has let us fall on our faces more than once, but has balanced the challenges to match our bumbling abilities. We've been playing now since November and we have finally tackled a big challenge. We are about halfway up a wizard's tower looking for a mage that hasn't been seen in 100 years, and we are trying to delivery a letter to him.

Prootwaddle – Random Encounter

Bert (NPC)

Prootwaddle

 ST:10, DX:10, IQ:7, MA:8

A prootwaddle is according to Steve Jackson: These are quarrelsome, unruly, moronic little humanoids. Simple hunters and gatherers, they live in small forest villages. Occasionally, some will be found in a city, sleeping in alleys and performing simple tasks. VERY simple tasks. No Proot- waddle has an IQ of greater than 6; if one becomes smarter through some incredible piece of luck, he changes his name and moves far away. (In The Labyrinth © 2018, page 78).

Bert is basically your average prootwaddle. His hobbies are picking his nose and digging holes in the ground or other places with his knife, which is rather dull (1d-3). He will normally be found somewhere searching for food and drinking water from puddles. He has a rather limited vocabulary and often reverts to just saying ‘proot’ when asked a question. He is a solitary figure. His tribe picked up and moved on one day and he didn't notice.

On a reaction roll on 3D vs his IQ he will ‘befriend’ you and try to follow you. Swatting at him or throwing rocks will only cause him to follow from a safer distance. Despite his own lack of hygiene, he can smell orcs five megahexes away and begin excitedly ‘prooting’ if the party is walking into an orc ambush. If the party engages in a battle Bert will run off and reappear only after the dust settles. He likes shiny baubles and coins. He values coppers as much as gold. 

Hail and well met.

Welcome. Many years ago I stumbled on a game that caught my attention. D&D was popular at the time, but from what I read of it, it was too complex for my tastes. This game though was in a small booklet with cardboard counters and a paper map -- all in a plastic bag. It was called Melee by Steve Jackson and published by Metagaming. I bought it and immediately fell in love with it's simple mechanics and ease of play.

You create a couple of characters and they hack and slash each other until there was a victor. I didn't have a friend to play the game with, but no matter. There was a solo adventure called Death Test. I could create several characters and send them into the dungeon to be attacked by bears, wolves, spiders, not to mention orcs and other fell beings with sharp blades.

Other modules came out to satisfy my lust for more adventure. Wizard, the magical combat rules, expanded the game and other solo options came out: Death Test 2, Grail Quest, Treasure of the Silver Dragon, Treasure of the Unicorn Gold, and others that I didn't buy. Finally Metagaming produced the Fantasy Trip which included Advanced Melee, Advance Wizard, In The Labyrinth, and the adventure Tollenkar's Lair.

A couple of things happened then. One was Steve Jackson and Metagaming parted ways, (Did I say that nice enough?) and a bit later Metagaming went out of business. The other was my life got more complicated with finding and trying to maintain a job -- I seemed to have a bad habit of being hired by companies on the verge of bankruptcy. I now had a larger family and as the Fantasy Trip resources dried up I had other things on my mind.

Many, many years passed. I'm now a grandfather and retired teacher. I've got lots of time on my hand and I never gave up on my desire to be a professional kid -- my grandchildren help there. One day I see in my news feed that Steve Jackson has regained the rights to his brainchild and is republishing The Fantasy Trip™through a kickstart and I yelled, "I want it All!"

So here I am, playing the game again. I joined a local group of gamers to play a campaign at our local game store (thank you One Eyed Jacques). I haven't found all my old materials, but I have found a number of old maps and campaign ideas. I plan to post them here along with stories and notes on our current campaign. I hope you will follow me.

Thanks.