NTRPG Con IX (2017)

[Terrex]

Good stuff. Nice homage to the DM Screen, too.

[Steve]

CHAINSAW'S FOOLSGRAVE, Saturday Evening
========
Welleran
Flambeaux
capitalbill
Steve
Victoria (thief died, cleric died, not a member)
Patrick (died twice, once by a deathstar, not a member)
Rosser (balrog62's friend)
austinjimm
balrog62 (necromancer died, nearly decapitated by flying bugs)

Saturday evening I bummed a game of Chainsaw's Foolsgrave. I was thinking about begging Grodog a place at his table, but that late into the con, I just didn't have the brain power to run a high level PC. A 1st level meatshield was more my style, so I rolled up Dice Dougal, a weasel of a 1st level fighter who would have been a used car salesman in another era. Race: Man, AL: Depends...

Since this is an ongoing dungeon, I won't go into too much detail. Needless to say, life is cheap in Foolsgrave. We had 5 or 6 deaths in about 5 hours, depending on how you count death. We had a great deal of fun, and we were the first group to find level 2.

Some of the funnier moments came with Jimm's magician getting stuck on the top of a tower. (After what Jimm pulled in my To Hades and Back game, he had it coming!) I think he is called Borlack the Black, or something like that.

Upon getting stuck, Jimm and Chainsaw realized there had been a mistake made when rolling up his PC, and that he should have begun with a few spell scrolls. The easy thing would have been for Jimm to choose a scroll of Levitation, but kudos for him for taking Knock instead. Obviously this isn't the last we've heard from Chainsaw and Jimm about Borlack(?).

The other thing that was humorous was that all, or almost all of the fatalities were from players who didn't know Chainsaw. Dude is a stone cold killer DM. I don't think they understood that "Hey, this looks interesting" in a Chainsaw dungeon equals "Hey, this will kill us in an interesting way."

Dice Dougal made it out with enough XP to level, but not quite enough gold to level (I rolled poorly on starting gold).

Here are Dice Dougal's rules for surviving Chainsaw's Foolsgrave dungeon:

#1. The ideal party will have 25% to 50% players who aren't familiar with Chainsaw, which means they will almost certainly die. This way you get a full group's worth of loot, but only have to split it among half a group.

#2. If you think something looks interesting, see the name of the dungeon.

#3. The 5 minute rule. If someone isn't seen or heard from for 5 minutes, they are presumed dead and your group should move on. There will be no rescue missions in Foolsgrave.

#4. Be humble. Go for the low-hanging fruit/easy treasures only. If you must go after some tantalizing treasure, make the other guy go first so you can loot the treasure over their freshly charred corpse.

#5. Don't believe anything that was written on the walls. I, er, they are only trying to get you killed (or stuck on top of a tower).

[balrog62]

Nice write-up!

And Rosser is one of my former Middle School RPG club members.

[AxeMental]

Great write ups and list Steve. Wish I was there.

[Chainsaw]

CHAINSAW'S FOOLSGRAVE, Saturday Evening

Hilarious write-up! I love the rules for survival, haha! Overall, your crew did pretty well. Using capitalbill's knowledge from the Thursday afternoon session, you navigated past the opening challenge, then soon discovered the Camp Site room. From there, while austinjimm looked for treasure on the tower roof, your crew fended off an attack by lotus-chewing pict berserkers (compliments of Philotomy!). Eventually abandoning austinjimm, you headed off the central map, tangling with some giant flying caterpillars (with bristles covered in paralyzing goo), pillaging two spider's nests (very dangerous at level one considering their deadly poison!) and overcoming a metal monitoring sphere of doom (well, most of you). You left with some decent treasure and the location of a way to Level 2 (first ones to find a way down!). Pretty succesful I say, even allowing for the half-a-dozen fatalities (poor Patrick and Victoria had no idea what hell they had stepped into!). We will see what happens with Borlack the Black! I suspect we have not heard the last of him by any stretch.

The Thursday afternoon Foolsgrave crew consisted of:
- capitalbill (K&KA member)
- tetramorph (K&KA member)
- Barnett1967 (Hyperborea member)
- wjaehnig (Acaeum member)
- Bracton (Acaeum member)
- stratochamp (Acaeum member)
- Dave
- Cody

This party survived the opening challenge after a few hilarious and hair-raising moments that of course included grappling, a lasso, acrobatics and other assorted silliness. From there, they wandered for a bit before tangling with the flying caterpillars, finding some treasure, fleeing from a giant green slime (more than they could handle!) and eventually finding a route west from the central map. In this area they discovered a room of magical pedestals that blessed wjaehnig with +1 to strength, but turned stratochamp into a freakish abomination with a vulture wing, a withered black stump, a backward bending goat leg and an overlong tentacle leg. He felt like giving up (Bracton swears he even saw tears), but soon found a purpose when they ran into a hungry pack of carnivorous apes who demanded the party send over its weakest to be eaten. Naturally they responded "Send over your strongest for a winner take all fight!" which prompted a big four-armed albino ape to step into the torch light. Fearing immiment disaster, Stratochamp's abomination lit on a sure-fire plan, stating "Light me on fire, then I will run in and grapple him!" Somehow, this worked! He ran in and grappled succesfully - then the rest threw honor to the side and attacked! Miraculously, they won the fight! A captured ape-men led them to the lair treasure and then they hauled ass out of there. Good times!

[Philotomy Jurament]

...your crew fended off an attack by lotus-chewing pict berserkers (compliments of Philotomy!)

I love those guys. (And invisible chests.)

[Chainsaw]

...your crew fended off an attack by lotus-chewing pict berserkers (compliments of Philotomy!)

I love those guys. (And invisible chests.)

Your Cromlech Tor megadungeon game made a strong positive impression on me, man. Plus, that was the first time I met austinjimm, who sat next to me the whole time. I still remember austinjimm's PC's arm morphing into a lizard arm! Hard to believe that was June 2010. I hope you can come back again some day.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Your Cromlech Tor megadungeon game made a strong positive impression on me, man. Plus, that was the first time I met austinjimm, who sat next to me the whole time. I still remember austinjimm's PC's arm morphing into a lizard arm! Hard to believe that was June 2010. I hope you can come back again some day.

Yeah, that was a great D&D moment, for me (especially since you guys managed to arrest the complete polymorph curse and Jimm seemed so delighted with his PC's new hand). I can't believe it was that long ago, either.

[Steve]

Yeah, I think I listened in on that group at the beginning (dealing with the statue) and end (the treasure of the apes). I was wondering what had happened to Stratochamp. I still think he'd make better money joining a carnival and charging admission to his freak tent where people would pay to look at him. Was it Stratochamp the group commissioned a song to be written about?

Thanks to Chainsaw for filling in some of the names for me. I forgot to mention two of the PCs died by closet, that was something new to me. How did Victoria's thief die? Was that when Patrick set off the fire trap and lost his eyebrows? (Just goes to show nobody notices when a thief dies.)

The thing I like about Chainsaw's dungeon is that he doesn't just kill you, he kills you with style. Sure, you could kill a roach by stomping on it, but it's much more dramatic if you use a flamethrower or bazooka.

[Chainsaw]

Your Cromlech Tor megadungeon game made a strong positive impression on me, man. Plus, that was the first time I met austinjimm, who sat next to me the whole time. I still remember austinjimm's PC's arm morphing into a lizard arm! Hard to believe that was June 2010. I hope you can come back again some day.

Yeah, that was a great D&D moment, for me (especially since you guys managed to arrest the complete polymorph curse and Jimm seemed so delighted with his PC's new hand). I can't believe it was that long ago, either.

Time flies, man. We need you back!

The thing I like about Chainsaw's dungeon is that he doesn't just kill you, he kills you with style. Sure, you could kill a roach by stomping on it, but it's much more dramatic if you use a flamethrower or bazooka.

or meathooks!

[tetramorph]

It has taken me a while to settle back in at home, but I can finally post about NTRPGCon!

First of all, thanks Chainsaw, Steve and Austinjimm! And it was great to see a lot of you folks there.

I played in two of Chainsaws games (Foolsgrave and Corpse Creek). They were both rad, as expected. I even got to play the same character, which was cool. I can't remember which scenario it was now, but at some point I had my character catch the ceiling with his grappling hook, climb to the ceiling, grab the ceiling directly, dislodge the grappling hook, then use it to "lasso" a giant ant who conveniently happened to be magnetic! Then I could just swing him above the heads of the other characters so that they could take swings at him like a piñata. Tex-Mex style. Barbarians forever!

Steve and Austinjimm ran the social, and that was awesome. Just crazy fun. I thought I was finally going to get to kill Chainsaw's character for good, but the moment was swept away from me with one simple wish! Oh well, I know the Vampire Lich Alucard is trapped away somewhere, waiting for the Demogorgon to unleash him on an unsuspecting social in the future. And when that happens, whatever lawful fighting man I am running will be waiting. Oh yes.

Steve's DEATH ON PLANET X was pretty much amazing. Some of the most fun I have had role playing ever. And the rules are perfect for the genre. I played a "scoundrel" class character named "Chan Duo" (basically a Han Solo knock off). He had this mechanic called "fools luck," where I could request another roll up to four times if a roll was bad for me (either rolled by me or the ref!). This led to the seriously most hilarious endless combat with a lizard man who completely regenerated all his hit points every time you hit him unless you actually take out all his hit points in a single round. The dude was unstoppable. But, in the end, apparently, so was Chan! The ref got tired and wanted to go to bed so, sure enough, Deus ex machina, a crazy plant-creature showed up in the nick of time and ate the lizard man. Chan rolled on. By the time the character rejoined the party (he was creating a diversion the whole time. Don't ask) I decided he was so sick of the whole thing that he wasn't even going to tell the other characters about it: "what happened man?" "Nothing! What's it to you, anyway?"

-----

On another note: any thoughts about the social? It seemed like over half of the players present did not have an account or did not even know what K&KA is. I'm a welcoming guy, but the idea is for us to have our own social. Some folks who had signed up, even pre-payed to sign up, did not have a place at the table. That seems like a bummer to me. Should we be meanies next year and say "For K&KA members only (And if you don't know what that means, you aren't a member)!"

FIGHT ON!

[austinjimm]

On another note: any thoughts about the social? It seemed like over half of the players present did not have an account or did not even know what K&KA is.

If more of the Texas delegation (LIKE PHILOTOMY & DUNGEON DORK!) attended, it probably wouldn't be a problem.



EDIT:

TRP's not too far out either!


EDIT:

Oh, yeah. Then there's AXEMENTAL who went to *Canada* instead!!!

[TRP]

TRP's not too far out either!

I'm like that pro sports fan that's a "there's always next year!" kinda guy. Though I have made it twice.

Oooh .. next year is a 1e year for the Social. Right?

[EOTB]

Yes, yes it is...

[Jeff]

On another note: any thoughts about the social? It seemed like over half of the players present did not have an account or did not even know what K&KA is.

If more of the Texas delegation (LIKE PHILOTOMY & DUNGEON DORK!) attended, it probably wouldn't be a problem.



EDIT:

TRP's not too far out either!


EDIT:

Oh, yeah. Then there's AXEMENTAL who went to *Canada* instead!!!

Don't forget us East Coasters. I mean, Georgia isn't exactly known for it's RPG chops, but still