Resolute Play Testing: The Powerful Mage

Let's see how this game holds up with higher-level characters. Let's go right to an archage and an archfiend. Lots of arches here.

Pandarus the Might (Legendary Human Wizard; Renown 4)

Attack 0 | Defense 5 | Focus 6 | Resolve 7

Relics: 

the Staff of the Archmage (+1 Defense and +1 Focus; +1 spell per turn)

The Ring of the Troll King (regenerate 1 every other round)

Robes of Aliazar (+1 Defense and +1 Focus)

Spells: Dart of Arcane; all listed spells (he’s an archmage!)

The Fiend of the Pits of Entropy (Renown 4)

Attack 13 | Defense 12 | Focus 12 | Resolve 13

Whip (2x per round) deals 2 damage; on a foe’s Defense of 7 or less (or a natural 2), deals 3 damage

As a free action, projects an aura of flame every third round, dealing 1 flame damage to all in medium range who fail a Defense check against its Focus.

Okay, let’s see how these guys do. As Pandarus watches the prisoners he has just freed try to escape from their crossing of the Bridge over the Pits of Entropy, the Arch Fiend rises, challenging the wizard to battle. “I know of you old man… and I look forward to adding your staff to my collection of trophies.” The wizard replies,“The only trophy will be your desiccated corpse!”

Initiative. Round 1. Pandarus rolls only 11, so he fails to win initiative; The Fiend goes first, and Pandarus attempts to dodge two slashes: he rolls 12 and 17, narrowly being hit once. He suffers 2 damage, and is down to 5 Resolve. Pandarus uses his action to cast a haste spell, giving him two actions per round.

Round 2. The fiend continues to use his whip, and Pandarus rolls 10 and 14, getting hit once. He is going to go ahead and use his 4 points from his Renown right here, since he’s already feeling the damage; this neutralizes the attack that had hit. Pandarus gets to attack twice; he casts an arcane dart and an arcane bolt. He hits with the dart (16) and only gets 10 with the bolt, which is not enough to hit; and he already used his 4 points of renown. Drat. He deals 1 damage with the dart, leaving the demon at Resolve 12. Pandarus’ ring allows him to recover 1 point of damage, putting him to Resolve 6.

Round 3. Bad news: The fiend’s aura goes off, but Pandarus rolls 12 to resist it. He barely ducks in time as the circle of unholy flame washes over him. The demon slashes with his whip twice, and Pandarus rolls 12 and 8 for defense. Yikes!; he suffers 4 points and is down to Resolve 2. This might be over soon.  He attempts to stun the fiend, and gets 14 against the Defense of 12. Yes. The demon is stunned for one round. Pandarus casts three arcane darts (including this round and round 4), rolling 12, 14, and 16 against the stunned CR of 6. He hits three times, but unfortunately only does 1 point with each dart. The demon is down to Resolve 9. At the end of round 4, Pandarus’ ring restores another point, moving him up to Resolve 3. This is all good, but Pandarus only has two advanced spells left this turn, and then he’s going to have to go with his basic spell the rest of the fight.

It is Round 5. Pandarus rolls 10 and 15 against the attack of 13, getting hit once with the whip and suffering 2 hits. He is down to 1! Pandarus tries another arcane bolt, rolling 14, and scoring 3 points of damage! He also hits with his arcane dart, getting a natural 12, but only a 3 on the following die; he deals 2 damage, which is great. He’s just dealt 5 points, leaving the demon at Resolve 4. 

It is Round 6. The demon’s aura of flame goes off and Pandarus rolls only 13 to Defend (whew), so he stays at Resolve 1. He also has to try to evade two whip slashes, and gets 13 and 16, dodging both strikes! He rolled really well… Pandarus only has 1 advanced spell left; I kind of want to save it in case he needs to vanish the heck out of here, but he does have his haste still active… and he’s getting a point back at the end of the round… eh. He’s feeling pretty good. He will use both his arcane bolt and his arcane dart again, which will mean he is out of advanced spells entirely. On the bolt, he rolls 16! He deals 3 wounds; with the dart, he hits with 14, so that’s enough for another wound; the fiend is at Resolve 0! 

I use the solitaire framework to decide what the Fiend does… I really don’t know what his most likely option here is… he could fight to the death (but he’s thousands of years old, so the idea of going out with a bang is unlikely)... he could surrender, granting some favor to the wizard; he could try to flee. I feel like the most likely option is surrender and bargaining… The solitaire framework says no. Option two is fleeing; natural 1. That is totally his thing. He turns tail and flees, cursing the wizard as he goes. 

Satisfied that the mighty demon has been resigned to his pit, Pandarus turns to follow the prisoners he has just freed into the daylight beyond.

Analysis… 

Wow this was close. Pandarus barely hung on there for a little bit. He has one extra slot for a relic that he doesn’t have, and I figure maybe he’d have a defender’s blade which would have given him advantage on his defense rolls. That would have made a big difference. As is, this was a solid combat between some of the game’s heavy hitters.

Haste made all the difference. Without that, he’s casting one spell per round, and has no chance. 

I didn’t have a LOT of strategic options, but I had some. I kind of wish that Pandarus had one spell left at the end, because he could have levitated that demon up and forced him to bargain with him or be destroyed; that would have been neat. 

Just for poops and giggles, let’s try Panarus against a weaker foe; an ogre:

Ogre Brute

(Dire Foe 2) Attack 11 | Defend 8 | Focus 7 | Resolve 10

On a Defense result of 6 or less (or a natural 2), the ogre’s club deals 2 damage.

Pandarus the Mighty (Legendary Human Wizard; Renown 4)

Attack 0 | Defense 5 | Focus 6 | Resolve 7

Relics: 

the Staff of the Archmage (+1 Defense and +1 Focus; +1 spell per turn)

The Ring of the Troll King (regenerate 1 every other round)

Robes of Aliazar (+1 Defense and +1 Focus)

Spells: Dart of Arcane; all listed spells (he’s an archmage!)

Pandarus wanders into a lair to find an ogre eating some of the sheep he’s been stealing. Pandarus warns him that his thievery cannot be tolerated by good and fair folk! It’s initiative.

Pandarus rolls a natural 12 on his initiative check, but a 1 on the following roll. Hmm. He should get some benefit for this… on to the solitaire framework. Does he get to take a free action? Nope (6). Does he have advantage on all rolls against the ogre for 1 full round? Yes he does (3). Okay. Pandarus will use his action to cast an arcane bolt. He rolls 16, dealing 3 wounds and leaving the ogre at 7. The ogre uses his action to run across the expanse (since they started at medium range).

Round 2. Pandarus has learned the value of haste. He casts it. The ogre attacks, but Pandarus never got the benefit of that advantage, so I let him keep it for this action (that makes sense); he rolls Defense and gets 11, which BARELY avoids the club attack. Pandarus would regenerate 1 point, but he’s still at full.

Round 3. Pandarus attacks twice, using a bolt and a dart of arcane energy; he gets 15 with the bolt (3 damage) and 16 with the dart (1 damage), for a total of 4; the ogre is down to 3. The ogre swings, but Pandarus rolls exactly an 11 again, which frustrates the ogre to no end. He’s barely missed twice.

Round 4. Pandarus stuns the ogre, getting 17 (so that ogre is really stunned), and then uses an arcane dart, getting a natural 12 for 2 damage, leaving the ogre at 1. The ogre drools. Pandarus would again regenerate a point, but nah. He’s good.

Round 5. Pandarus will just use 2 arcane darts (no need to use other spells now), and gets 17 and 13; he hits twice, and the ogre is at Resolve -1. He collapses in a pool of self-pity, weeping and begging for mercy. Pandarus tells him that he may live, but he must pick up his belongings and head east two days’ journey into the mountains; he can feed on wild mountain lions there, and leave the good folk of the village alone. He must also give up 10 coins for each of the six sheep he has already slaughtered, to compensate the good farmers who have lost livestock. The ogre agrees to these terms.

Analysis:

That was easy. It should have been easy. There was still a chance that Pandarus gets hit (he narrowly avoided getting hit twice), but he still would have defeated the ogre with minimal effort. I like it.

After Sleeping On It...

I looked at this drawing again this morning with a cup of coffee in hand, and saw it needed a background to make it whole and ground it a little... then I decided the font wasn't as readable as I'd like, and picked a different one... then I threw on a color splash and thought - 'this could be the cover'. It might end up being the cover. It's growing on me quite rapidly. 

Some Art

Because I crash on the couch and then wake at 3:30 am, here is my first attempt at a drawing for Resolute. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I'm not sure how to feel about it, to be honest. I want to like the straight up black and white line art version better, but the grey wash one is probably stronger. I can literally sleep on this one, because I'm going back to bed now :)

Resolute Draft Is Done

The Resolute draft is done. It weighs in at just over 5,800 words, fit neatly into ten pages. I have room for maybe three or four pieces of art, so I want to get working on that. The art is going to be in black and white and will be back to the Mignola-inspired approach I had for Saga of the Splintered Realm way back about seven years ago. I won't use any of that game's art, but I might use some of it as inspiration for an update. I have to go back and look at it again.

I am trying to design a game here that is completely hand-wavey without being hand-wavey at all. Every time you make a decision as the player, that becomes part of the fixed narrative for the game. I am trying to go with some of my world building rules (don't make more than you have to - the importance of names) to create evocative people, places, and things without telling you much about them. Yes, the apprentice necromancer you will fight at the end of the starter adventure wants to join the Dark Cabal of Moridis, and that sounds like a big deal. But, I don't tell you anything else about the Dark Cabal of Moridis, other than that is its name, and he wants to join it for some reason. I am trusting the player to figure it out, or to pick up a later PWYW supplement that will eventually include an assault on the stronghold of the Dark Cabal of Moridis. Because that place really needs to be destroyed, don't you think? 

I want to do some more play testing (I mean, I only ran one session so far!) and I am in no big hurry to release this to the wild (it's giving me something to do to tinker with it), but it feels good to have a draft done that I can now start to really tear apart and clean up. In only ten pages, I should be able to make this pretty airtight in terms of design and presentation.

Resolute Design Stuff: Levels and Advancement

Rather than a traditional experience and level system, Resolute will have a Renown system... you earn Hero Points, and when you attain certain thresholds, your renown increases. A 'typical' adventure (I'm calling these 'deeds you complete') is worth 2-3 hero points, so you'll need to do a lot of adventuring to get them points!

Moving up in renown gives you a character point to increase your abilities, but it also gives you this game's version of charisma - your renown is a bonus you apply to social interactions. You leverage your fame and reputation when interacting with NPCs. You can also add your renown to one roll every turn; you are the legendary Gorom the Barbarian! You will not be defeated! GRR.

However, you also spend those hero points (like Karma in FASERIP) to add a die to a roll. You are trading growth for survival. As a solitaire game, Resolute needs several mechanisms to help the player character surivive. However, there is another benefit to this; you can lose hero points by having a battle go really bad, or by making bad decisions, or by doing sketchy stuff (and getting caught), or by just having a run of bad fortune. You get to keep your ability bonuses, but you don't get to keep the renown bonuses; I LOVE this, because now Strider is just Aragorn who has lost a ton of renown, and is fighting to reclaim it. Over in the corner there is Baldar; I believe he used to go by Baldar the Bold, but he nearly died in combat with the Wyrm of Elder Flame, and he has never been the same... he is but a commoner now, though I believe once he was a legendary hero of great renown. The game actually has a mechanism for this sort of stuff; it's actually central to the whole thing. 

Your character sheet is largely dedicated just to a list of the deeds you have accomplished - you keep a record of all of your accomplishments to share over a round of ales (that you paid for in order to earn a hero point and increase your renown... you sneaky devil you).

   

Resolute Play Testing Session 1

I have a story arc in mind; a small village has fallen under the shadow of a new necromancer who has come into the area. There will be three deeds (adventures) that need to be accomplished, with the big bad fight coming at the end of the third. So far, so good. I like threes. The first adventure will send my new hero into a tomb to fight some critters.

I read a post a few weeks ago by Matt Jackson over on his blog where he spoke about evocative locations and mapless play, which he had read about elsewhere. I kinda like that, so I’m going to give it a shot. I can picture an old sarcophagus in the graveyard at the far edges of the church’s lands - a place where it touches the nearby dark woods, and where nature has slowly pushed its way in. The graveyard itself is overgrown and gone to weed, and the tombs are all at least a century old.

The acolyte was doing his weekly spreading of holy water on the graves and noticed that one of the tombs was open. As he got closer, he saw a goblin move about in the darkness, and then an arrow flew towards him, missing. He fled, reporting this to the Abbot, who has sent word to the local keep of Brambly’s Crossing. There, my hero-to-be Ardent has been wallowing in self pity, looking for an opportunity to prove himself after his failures in the Gladiator Pits of Uth Katan. More on that later (once I figure out what that means).

The three encounters will be in the tomb… he will have three critter-level encounters, because he is brand new and I don’t want to kill him. I have stats for rats, spiders, and goblins done, and that seems to be workable. I could put in a puzzle of some kind… that would be good. Maybe a trap?

Okay. The goblins are in there, and maybe they’ve put a simple trap on the door (a stone is wedged to fall on anyone who opens the door, dealing 1 damage - enough to kill a regular joe, but not an emerging hero like Ardent!). It’s not a very good trap, so challenge 8 (need a better, shorter way to say that. Challenge Rating / CR 8? Going with that for now). Ardent needs to make a successful Focus check CR 8 to notice the wedged stone prepared to harm him. I roll 10, so he finds it easily and can safely open the door.

The first encounter is a room full of spider webs. It was a ceremonial chamber for religious rites, but now it is occupied by 4 tomb spiders. Two start in close range (right above the door), but two are at medium range (in other corners of the chamber; they need to use 1 round to get close enough to bite).

Ardent botches his Focus check, so these two spiders get to take a free attack before initiative. Ugh. He has to Defend against two attacks of 6.  He rolls 6 and 11, so succeeds. It is initiative. Ardent gets 7 against their Focus of 7, so I get the win on the tie (the rating for a monster sets the target for success). He attacks one of the spiders, getting 12, so he hits. He almost got to hit a second, but I’m happy he killed one. The other attacks, but Ardent defends with 7 against the attack of 6.

Round 2, and three spiders are now in melee combat. Ardent attacks, getting 14! He kills two of them. The final spider attacks, but Ardent evades with a 7. 

Round 3: Ardent attacks and hits with a 12, killing the spider.

He examines their webs, and needs to succeed on a CR 8 Focus check to find their treasure. He rolls 6, so he fails to find the small clutch of gemstones they have hidden in a web. Ah well. Better luck next time.

Already I can see that advantage on your primary ability is great. Twice I turned a mediocre result into a great one by having that third die.

On to the rats. Ardent descends stairs into a ceremonial hallway (lots of ceremonial stuff down here) that is flooded to knee deep, and is filled with rats. Okay. Not filled. There is one rat. Hmph. Sometimes the dice just give you one critter. Happens. The rat chirps and swims towards him, hungry and desperate since the dozens (no - HUNDREDS) of other rats that were with him have all been eaten by the four spiders that were at the top of the stairs. He’s mad. He’s actually the toughest rat EVER, with 2 resolve. This little critter is mad as heck and he’s not going to take it anymore. Ardent wins initiative, rolling a 7 against the Focus of 7. He rolls 11+3=14 to hit, so deals 2 points and slays that poor little thing. Sir Ratenberger, last Rat of the Rats of Bron Vindu, deserved a better end.

On to the goblins. There will be 1D6+1 of these, just because this is the big encounter for the adventure. I already know that the last goblin will surrender at 0 resolve rather than dying, and will pledge his service to the temple for life, and will give up info on the necromancer, if he is allowed to live. I mean, your character is going to want information on the necromancer (mine does), so that seems to be a no-brainer.

Alternatively, the goblins carry orders from the necromancer. They are to gather as many skulls as they can from two tombs, and then return to him. The goblin who lives (conveniently) does not know where the necromancer resides (the leader of their group did, but he was one of the first to die - how deus ex machina of him), so traveling to the next tomb and setting a trap is going to be the only option :)

Anyhow, on to bloodshed.

The goblins are busy working (digging up skulls and gathering them in sacks) so they can be snuck upon. I like that the game presumes anyone can sneak; however, if you have a few points in Focus and you’ve tagged it, you are much (much) better at sneaking - but everyone has a chance. Even Ardent. So, he tries to sneak in close enough to jump a goblin before initiative begins. He rolls snake eyes, so he does not sneak. And, I rolled another 1, so he drops a sword. Without it, I no longer have advantage on attacks, and can no longer get the +1 damage boost. Darn darn darn darn darn. I can spend one round picking up my sword, which I think I will do.

Ardent barely wins initiative (6 against their Focus of 6), so he spends his time picking up his sword. There are only three goblins here, but two are in close range. The other is on the other side of the chamber, but he has a short bow he can attack with, so all three are engaging. Hrmph. He gets a natural 12 against this attack, and rolls a 3 on the special bonus super die, so he deftly evades an arrow, but cannot step aside as it hits another goblin. Drat. 

By the way, I can already see that playing a defensive-oriented character would be a lot of fun. You are always stepping out of the way of enemy attacks, and once in a while you get one foe to shoot another, or you manage to trick the ogre into hitting something that causes his own club to rebound and hit him in the head. Sounds fun. I'm thinking that is totally the hobbit go-to ability; you just run around getting monsters to hurt themselves and each other.

Back to combat. Ardent has two goblin blades to evade, and he gets 6 and another natural 2. He rolls 2 on the following die, so he BARELY keeps from suffering even another point of damage; the goblins have attack 7, so Ardent suffers 2 wounds here, down to Resolve 3. Grr grr grumble grumble. Stupid goblins.

Round Two. Ardent has recovered his dropped sword and a little of his self-respect, so he gets to attack. Natural 12. This is followed up with a 4, so it’s just a really solid hit, but he’s able to use his special ability to deal 2 wounds, meaning he kills the two goblins in melee, and prepares to charge at the bow-wielding goblin on the other side of the chamber. He rolls a 6 to evade an arrow, but this catches him in the shoulder, leaving his Resolve at 2. Rut row.

Round Three. Ardent runs at the goblin and this takes the full round. The goblin fires again, and Ardent rolls 4+2 = 6. Seriously? The dude must be wearing armor of missile attraction or some bull like that. He suffers another wound, leaving him at Resolve 1. 

Round Four. Ardent attacks and gets 11+3=14, so he’s able to pretty easily defeat the goblin (if you count losing 4 out of 5 Resolve as ‘easy’). The goblin begs for mercy, and promises to serve the mighty Ardent in any capacity he deems fit. I don’t see Ardent as wanting a skeevy little goblin following him around, so he turns the goblin over to the temple, once he spills what little he knows about the necromancer (which is that there is a necromancer who sent them to gather skulls from two tombs, and this one was the first - but that’s it). From the goblins, he collects 7 coins.

For this, the church offers Ardent 20 coins for his valor. While the money would be nice, Ardent wants the reputation (since that equals renown - this game’s version of levels - and relative power). 

The adventure would be worth 2 hero points, but Ardent gets +1 for refusing the donation and asking them to spread the word that the Shadowed Vale is now protected by Ardent the Red. They promise to tell their friends. He now has 3 hero points towards the 10 he needs to improve his renown to 1 (Victor). He also offers to give the 7 coins he recovered as an additional donation, suggesting that an elixir of healing would sure be useful on his further adventures; this will be a renown check (+0) but at CR 8 because he did just bribe donate to them. I roll and get 5. They thank him for the donation, but sadly have nothing that could help a great hero like Ardent. But, he has their undying gratitude, and isn’t that better than some dumb elixir? Isn’t it? (spoiler alert - it is not).

To my list of Deeds, I add the following:

• Aid the Acolytes of Andover Abbey

I like assonance as much as I like alliteration… because it’s basically just alliteration with vowels.

   

Ardent the Red, Common (Renown 0) Human Gladiator (Hero Points 3 of 10)

Attack 3 | Defense 2 | Focus 0 | Resolve 5

Deals 2 damage on attack roll of 13+ (can distribute among multiple foes).

Wealth: 7 coins

Deeds: Aid the Acolytes of Andover Abbey

Play Testing Resolute: Session Zero

Let’s make a character! I’m thinking I want him to be the equivalent of an elf from basic D+D with both armor/weapons and magic, to test out a number of things at once… To get magic, I will need to make Focus his tagged ability. I have six points to distribute (on top of the 3 in resolve)... I picture him as a swordsman who supports himself with spells even though Focus has to be the tagged ability… so I go with:

Attack 3 | Defense 1| Focus 2 | Resolve 3

Already I can see that the game is going to penalize me for trying to build a hybrid character. It forces me to choose one pathway or to face the consequences. As is, the spells just won’t be very strong, but because Focus is tagged, I’m not a great swordsman. I can have both sword and magic, but I won’t be particularly great at either one - I don’t know that I would characterize that as a ‘flaw’, but instead as a ‘feature’. I mean, it’s a simple game - how much nuance can it have? Maybe I’ll try this character down the road… but for now…

I go back to the drawing board. The classic elfin wizard warrior is kind of a non-starter (although there’s probably a way to make it happen - will keep thinking). So, let’s go with your standard human fighting man type: the meat and potatoes of gaming.

Attack 4 | Defense 2 | Focus 0 | Resolve 4

The only real decision here is whether to put less in defense and more in resolve… or I could always give up a point in attack and move it to resolve. I want my character to be able to survive after all, and this is a solo game… this ended up being more a decision than I expected. I move this around a little to increase survivability:

Ardent the Red, Common (0) Human Gladiator

Attack 3 | Defense 2 | Focus 0 | Resolve 5

Deals 2 damage on an attack roll of 13+

And that is my entire stat block… I can make up a backstory about him. I know that he wears chainmail (hence the bonus to resolve) and has fast reflexes (hence the decent defense); he wields a pair of short swords, which gives him the solid attack rating and helps account for his tag. The idea is that when he lands the 13+ attack, he hits with both blades that round. He's a wandering sword for hire looking for wealth and fame. Standard.

This is fundamentally different from most games I’ve designed - you don’t keep getting gear to increase your stats, you interpret your stats in terms of how they reflect your gear. This will not appeal to power gamers, but I’m not writing a game for power gamers - I am writing (another) game for me :)