Briar's Quest: Session 1

Having made significant progress on the core rules for Cupcake Scouts, I’ve decided to start a solo game and see where this goes. I’m going to make a level 2 scout (so she has some survivability), and I’m going to make her a bit of a hybrid to test out as many different rules as I can. First of all, I am going to make her a Stalwart Scout (because those are my favorite - they are the fighter types), and I’m going to have her pick up gem use with one of her tags (so I can test out the magic rules, and give my scout some more versatility).

She is going to enter Moridis’ Labyrinth, searching for a relic she has heard of: the silvered dagger of quickening. It will give a bonus to damage and allow two attacks per round, which will make her quite powerful (in theory). As a stalwart scout, she starts with +1 to attacks, +1 to weapon damage, and two other tags: I’m going to take fighter, jeweler, and baker. This gives her the +1 edge to attacks (kind of important for her), the jewels to have some gems with her, and baker so she always has at least one magical treat, because that will also make a big difference for a solo character.

Briar - Stalwart Scout 2

[Hits 12 | Dagger (5) | +1 to attack; baker; fighter; jeweler; resolve]

- She can use 2 gems per day; she has a stunning gem and a sunlight gem.

- She has the following badges (5): shade hunter, zombie hunter, friend to gnomes, cupcake baker, and one bravery badge. She will start with no credit towards any other badges. I’ll presume that she’s been doing all of her adventuring in graveyards so far, and been helping gnomes with a variety of problems, as well as baking them lots of cupcakes.

Before setting off into Moridis’ Labyrinth, she bakes a fresh batch of muffins (since that’s what she’s working on next). She actually gets a success (natural 10), so she will have two muffins with her on her journey! She has a healing muffin and a growth muffin. Good stuff!

I’m going to use the rules for likelihoods throughout, and will see how that goes. 

Briar goes into the basement of the coffee shop (after getting a fresh cup of hot chocolate), and descends into area 33 on the map. She gets to the portcullis, which is possibly locked, but I roll a 4 and it is not locked. Someone left it open… for her? Rut roh. She carefully moves into the center of the area and looks around. She makes her social check and sees the secret door to the south; she checks that out first, and pushing the wall in (it’s spring loaded), she sees that stairs beyond descend into darkness. She is not ready to go any deeper yet! She decides to explore to the east. The room she is in was once an assembly hall of some kind (it has vaulted ceilings, and the remains of rows of seats that are long since rotted). She crosses east to area 35, and sees the statues. She examines the north statue first. The dice (rolled a 2) say that it’s an animated statue. She attempts a social check, but with the -1 edge she fails, and the statue springs to life as she is examining it. It attacks at +1 edge but misses, and she gets her turn; she leaps backwards while swiping with her dagger. She misses, despite her +1 edge (she needs to roll 7 on the dice to hit). It is very unlikely that the second statue is also an animated statue; nope. It might be special, but it’s not animated. Okay. The statue hits for 4 damage, and Briar is at 8. This time she hits for 5, but it soaks 1, suffering 4 and is down to 6. On its action, the statue swings at her hitting again for 4. She is at 4. She already has to pop that muffin in her mouth, regaining four hits (at 8) and then hitting (barely) for 5. After soaking 1, the statue is at 2 remaining. It hits her again for 4, and she’s back to 4 remaining. She totally misses (2, 1, 1 on the dice) and it hits her again! She’s at zero… Or she would be, but she uses her resolve ability to completely ignore that attack. She finally hits again for 5, dealing 4 and destroying the statue.

She was able to defeat it, but it used up a lot of her resources (she already used her healing muffin), and pushed her to use her resolve up. It’s all good, because she survived. 

On the fly, I think that having to recover 2 points an hour of rest is a lot for this game. I’m almost thinking that ten minutes of rest is enough to recover your level… because I want the game to keep moving. It’s an over the top game, so I don’t think anyone is going to be like “I accept that 11 year olds go on dangerous missions to the underdark with adult permission, but I’m struggling with the idea that they heal in a few minutes of rest”... like, this game is pretty clearly a game in a cartoonish world. People will go with it.

So, she recovers 2 points per ten minutes of rest… since she is down 8, she needs to rest for 40 minutes. I’ll say that she goes back to the stairs and snacks on a regular old everyday muffin to get some strength back, sip some water, and get her bearings. It is possible that there is a random encounter, and there is. It’s a zombie. It comes clamoring from the west just as she’s getting her muffin out, and she tries to hide to jump it. Stupid zombies. She succeeds, and gets to attack with +2 edges. Wow. She almost misses anyway! (6, 2, 1, 1) If that 6 was a 4, she misses. Anyway, she hits the zombie for 5, and it is at 1. It hits her for 2, and she is at 2. I could have her use resolve, but I’ll hold off for an emergency… She hits for 5 and destroys it.  This time she is able to rest for an hour, and fully recovers. 

Badge progress:

• 1 animated statue

• 1 zombie