So for today, I thought I'd have something of a guest-blog, from a guy (a guy who I don't particularly know yet) named Brian Isikoff, over on the Arrows of Indra G+ community. I mention I don't know him to express how awesome I feel about total strangers getting all excited about my game; even though now, with five RPG products out under my authorship, its happened several times, that feeling never seems to get old.
So here's what Brian had to say about his Arrows adventure:
"Ok, so my Arrows of Indra game at the flgs earlier today went quite well. Two of the players were no shows - plus the Fiasco game was trying to poach players - so I considered myself lucky to have 3 and it was game on at 11 am. We ran until 4:15 pm, with a brief lunch break and a pause or two.
I rolled up PCs this morning over coffee - I used the Dicenomicon to roll "full stats" and generated the basic 6. I embraced the Old School and went with more or less as rolled. I worked up 8 sets of stats - I fudged a 6 here and there.
The stats worked up into "half-baked" PCs with castes and classes. All 4th level. Players chose their class at the table, and received the information and a blank character sheet. Skills, HPs and such were rolled at the table.
The PCs turned out to be Rajunikant (played by David) - A Scout , Naveen (Andre) - A Siddhe[sic - think he means Siddhi], and Ajit (Adrian) - Virakshatriya. "Raj" and "Nav" turned out to both be members of the Sudra Nagal class. Raj especially had skills with mining, accounting, and slave trading. Nav was a great doctor and healer, but all six of his older siblings died by age 2 before him. Ajit was a first born son, now a Holy Warrior following the path of … Krishna. Somewhat controversial. The holy warrior had a rolled 18 in strength, with caste made it a whopping 19 (+4).
I'll interrupt here at the wonderfully sweet irony that the S19 PC was the one that died. Ahem.
The Siddhe had both his skills, as well as a Rank 1 Enlightenment Power (Levitation).
I had the PCs just recently completed leveling up to 4th level, completing any ascension rites, etc. Adrian had her Holy Warrior call for her garuda ("of course!").
The adventure & role-play began on the Island Republic of Dwaraka, during the annual lamp festival (which coincides with the start of the Wet Season, or shortly thereafter).
The group becomes a small expedition to the ruins of Janasthana. After encounters with dire centipedes, avoiding cannibals and dire apes, fighting two dire tigers, and finally a giant cobra, the group discovered some ancient ruins. The Holy Warrior declared that they had found the "first city" - so named as it was the first city that Rama destroy on his path to Janasthana.
The group the explored the ruins, and link to the Patala Underworld therein. Finally, they discovered nest of a giant spiders. Most they destroyed with fire, but one came up tunnel. The Holy Warrior fought it, and finally killed it … at the cost of his own life.
The two clan mates escaped with three Patala Gems to show for it, and quite a haul they considered it, despite the loss of two slave warriors and the Holy Warrior.
Continuing on with some additional commentary about the game. The opening scenes consisted of some light rationale for the PCs to be in Dwaraka. The Holy Warrior was essentially questing, and the two clan mates were looking for opportunities to expand their clans wealth. Given they were 4th level, I didn't both with tracking the gps and cps, at least at this stage.
The Scout checked out the market, while both the Siddhe and Holy Warrior participated in the Lantern Ceremony, and met after hanging their lanterns. As they spoke, they became aware of a strange feeling of being watched … the Siddhe used The Clarity Eye to then show them they scene of their observer (creating a very AoI flavored version of the old Expert Set cover). A Holy Warrior of Kali was observing them from higher up. They soon confronted the warrior, who wore black lacquered lamellar armor under his robes.
While that ended in the PCs backing off, the Holy Warrior later sought out his rival the next day, finding him at the Kalari Arena. Words were exchanged, and then it was an armor-less duel with heavy maces.It went back and forth bit, and I thought the PC was going to lose (frankly), and pow her PC laid out the Kali-worshipper (but not dead).
The PCs used the maps (the larger one was especially helpful) to plan out the time / logistics from the city to the river delta, and then the time up river. They finished provisioning up.
I ran a "light" wilderness set, keeping an eye on the time as well as a handle on where we were in the adventure. It was essentially improv, with the random tables providing great utility. I moved the journey with narration, and spot encounters.
At least one of the tribes of barbarians had been identified as cannibals going in - and the entry and exit markers of skulls going into and leaving their territory provided for some tense moments. Then the party was in the great jungle.
At this point, the group had no idea how to find the lost city. The Holy Warrior decided to recite some ancient scriptures and tales of Rama and guide them via religious landmarks (essentially). She was the only one who had seen the "new" Battlestar Galactica (in addition to me) to appreciate the similarity to the scene on Kobold.
They went a week up river, then disembarked in a smaller group (3 PCs + 2 slaves) north, through the jungle. The cobra was the last encounter before / as they found the ruins.
Everyone had a great time, and said they'd consider playing again."
That's it for today.
RPGPundit
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