This last Sunday, we finally managed to make a start into our GURPs game, without having to spend most of the session finishing, altering, or creating characters. My intent is not to record these game sessions, I fundamentally already have too much footage to get thru with Pathfinder and the old Hero System game, but I will try to summarize the major events in blog posts.
Our adventures take place in the Old World, in the Empire region of Wissenland, in a small town called Fluorin, north of Geschburg. The town is a sleepy village, off the main roads and tradeways, but with the occasional visitor. It is late in the harvest season, and the townsfolk are preparing for their annual harvest festival.
In the prior session, the group had only just started during a short game, and had been hired by the local merchant to retrieve a shipment of alcohol that was needed for the upcoming festival. Although the order had been placed many weeks prior, the shipment had not yet arrived, and the festival was only a few days away. The agreement was a reward of 15 gold crowns for the recovery and retrieval of the order, or at least the safe delivery.
The group had headed out along the south road, and late in the day, found a wagon that had been assaulted and damaged, the cargo no where to be found. However, footprints indicated that several persons had attacked and made off with the supplies, heading east deep into the forest. The group attempted to follow the trail, but given the dark night, a general lack of light, and virtually no ability to follow tracks, they soon found themselves hopelessly lost in the woods.
However, as their adventure seemed to be coming to an untimely and anti-climatic end, they spotted a campsite ahead, occupied by several persons of note. Immediately the group made the conclusion that these were the robbers, and set about sneaking up on the band. The outlaw and priest pressed forward, while the others, hampered by the darkness, clumsily crashed thru the underbrush.
The plan went south rapidly however, as the priest, attempting to parley with the band of 4 ruffians, but ever the truthful one, quickly revealed that he had others in the forest. The brigands spread out, and one moved into the trees to deal with the others, attempting to ambush them in the dark. A chaotic melee began, with the priest forced to deal with several, while the rest of the group moved in. The bandit leader grabbed a crossbow, and began to take shots at the group, while the others charged forth against the group, one running his short sword clean thru the side of one of the approaching party members. Taken a bit aback by the ferociousness of combat (the group is only familiar with Pathfinder and its survivability), they initially where on the defensive, but quickly got their combat legs and began to strike back.
The elf outlaw in particular appeared to be very capable in combat – her training and natural skills made it very difficult for the bandits to strike her in combat, with every swing being dodged with acrobatic flare. In return, she sent arrow and arrow into the villains, until her quiver had run dry. The priest was helpful, tossing a minor healing spell here and there, but otherwise focused on avoiding combat. The rogue managed to keep his distance and fire off a few crossbow bolts as well, keeping the bandits on their toes. The swamp skimmer and criminal both fought valiantly, but fell unconscious from suffering several wounds.
In the end, the group was victorious, with no deaths, and only a few major injuries. By morning, they were able to limp back to town with the supplies, and claim their rewards, though the less lawful among them considered stealing the goods for their own means, rather than returning them as requested.
Post game, as is our standard process, each character had the option to spend their experience (5 pts for the game session), and make any adjustments or alterations to their prior choices. In particular, the rogue opted to remove his Greed drawback, since it really wasn’t in the nature of the player, and the swamp skimmer eliminated his Gluttony, to avoid the group from taking advantage of him in the future (he had been paid for the mission with a hearty meal, where the others received a share of gold). We also discovered that the priest had misunderstood how much spell skills cost, and had drastically overpaid. As such, he spread the excess points around and “discovered” a great many more spells for his use.
