It's another episode of play report with our favorite hunter, Flint.
It's another episode of play report with our favorite hunter, Flint. Last time we saw her, she was examining tracks on the road when a new danger arose....
“Oh, what’s zis, coming out of the woods?”
“It’s a girl.”
“A pretty girl,” a third one said.
Flint looked around. There were three young men, armed and leering. The first one, with a Eastman accent, had the confidence of the alpha of the pack. She quickly took a few steps back the way she came, drawing her bow at the leader.
“Oh, zis one, she has spunk, no?”
The other two boys had stopped their advance, waiting to see what the Eastman did.
Flint is trying to Secure an Advantage through aggression, with the goal to convince these raiders that she’s not to be trifled with. This is a roll +iron. Her Iron is 2. Ooh, only a 2 on the action die, for 4 total. And the Challenge dice? 6 and 10. That’s a miss. Her momentum is only +4, so it will be of no help. Time to Pay the Price. In this case, is the Eastman confident because they are well-armed or because there’s a 4th raider behind her? Let’s ask the Oracle — I roll a 73. So, it’s the second option.
Being surrounded, this is now a Dangerous situation. She is ambushed, so Flint is ambushed as she Enters the Fray. It’s a roll +wits, which is her weakest stat at 1. However, the Action die shows 6, so surely a 7 is enough? Right? The Challenge dice have other ideas, both come up a 7. Not only is this a miss, but with a Challenge dice match, there’s also “a heightened negative outcome, a complication, or new danger”. Hmm, I’m not sure what that means quite yet.
As for Paying the Price for the miss, the most obvious bad thing would be for her to get hurt by the ambusher. Thus, her miss will trigger the Endure Harm move. She hasn’t been able to recover from her fight with the wolf the previous day, so her Health is at +3. Dangerous foes inflict 2 harm, so she’s down to +1 Health. Her Iron at +2 is higher than her new Health, so it’s a roll +iron. The Action die is a 5, for a total of 7. The Challenge dice came up 3 and 10, for a weak hit. “You press on,” the move says.
We still have to resolve the matter of the match on the previous roll. Oh, Oracle, what wisdom do you have for me? 86. “It requires you to expend resources: Suffer -supply.” So, mechanically, that means Flint’s Supply drops from +4 down to +2. Let’s start writing the narrative, and see how I can weave this in.
The Eastman nods his head slightly, and as Flint turns to see what he is gesturing at, she feels the pommel of a sword slam into the base of her skull. She is a hunter, not a soldier, and she cries out and looses her arrow. It burrows into the ground harmlessly.
She stumbles away, dropping her bow and clutching her neck. A welt is already beginning to form. As she regains her composure, the ground sways beneath her feet. The men chuckle.
These are terrible odds. It’s a Battle, a dance of sinew and steel, and it’s over before Flint knows it. She has only her courage to defend her, so this is a roll +heart, which is 2. I palm the 6-sided die and roll. The Action die bounces on the table once or twice, then settles on a 5. Another result of 7. I blow on the Challenge dice for good luck, then roll… a 2 and 4! This is a strong hit, which spells unconditional success. She drives off the raiders and they leave her alone! She will never know how, though, it all happened so fast! She gets a momentum boost, too, from +4 to +6.
Flint is gasping on the road. She sees the last of the raiders fleeing east, loping as best he can. She has a white-knuckle grip on her knife, which is coated in human blood. His blood, looking at the trail he’s leaving behind.
She stands for a moment, listening intently, eyes darting back and forth, but the only sound is her sharp breath and the only sight is blood and mud. Her head is a red fog, thick with memories of their hands grabbing her, her hands scratching and clawing, her boot connecting with a leering face, the swish of her blade, and their angry and fearful cries.
She picks up her bow and salvages what arrows she can. Only two look serviceable. Broken shafts litter the road, trampled underfoot during the battle. She takes the pieces, hoping to salvage the heads and feathers. A few paces away lies a sword, its pommel wet with blood. Her blood. As she bends to pick it up, stars flash across her vision and she nearly vomits.
Carefully to stay upright, she kneels and takes the sword. It bears the make of the Eastman. She retreats back to her camp. It is just afternoon, but she follows an animal trail deeper into the bush. Surrounded by scrub, she sits down against the trunk of a tree, downs her water-skin, and tries to get some rest to clear her head.
This passes for Making Camp, so I roll +supply (2). Drat, the Action die is only a 1, for 3 total. The challenge dice are 1 and 5, resulting in a weak hit. I’d rather save my momentum, so the one option I’ll choose is Recuperate, which brings Flint’s Health from +1 to +2.
When she comes to again, it’s late afternoon. She blinks a few times, and she can hear the stream over the throbbing in her head. She turns it a few times experimentally, and is pleased that she feels more or less like she woke up this morning. She lost a day of travel and most of her quiver of arrows, but finds herself happy to be alive and intact.
She searches the banks for berries, and the bushes for supple branches suitable to become shafts. The Resupply role is a roll +wits, so I add a roll of 2 to her Wits of 1. That 3 doesn’t best the Challenge dice’s 4 and 10, so it’s a miss. She still gets +2 to her Supply, bringing it back to +4, but it will cost her -2 momentum. She’s back to +4 Momentum — in this case, a worthwhile trade.
She spends the afternoon cutting branches for arrow shafts and filling her belly with berries. As the stars come out, she refills her quiver again. The attack weighs on her, though.
I am going to make a move that I should have made in response to the combat before, and that’s Test Your Spirit. That’s -2 to her Spirit, which drops to +3 now. Her Spirit is still better than her Heart, so we roll +spirit. Action die says 2, so that’s 5. Hurray, the Challenge dice are double 2’s. Not only is that a strong hit, but the Challenge dice match signals a new opportunity! To resolve the hit, I choose “Shake it off”, so her Momentum drops a point to +3, but her Spirit gains 1 to go back up to +4.
She thinks over the morning, her actions, and the way the battle on the road played out. She decides she’s proud of herself. Fates know, she’s heard enough horror stories about highwaymen to know what could have happened! And yet here she is, warm and safe.
She spends the night here, which is enough to invoke the Make a Camp move again. Her Supply is now +4, and I roll a 3. That 7 is more than enough to beat the 1 and 3 on the Challenge dice: a strong hit! I get to choose 3 options. Recuperate again, for sure. I’ll take Relax, and… Focus. The resulting +1 additions bring up Flint’s stats to +3 Health, +5 Spirit, and +4 Momentum. I can’t wait to see what awaits Flint when she continues her journey!
“Oh, what’s zis, coming out of the woods?”
“It’s a girl.”
“A pretty girl,” a third one said.
Flint looked around. There were three young men, armed and leering. The first one, with a Eastman accent, had the confidence of the alpha of the pack. She quickly took a few steps back the way she came, drawing her bow at the leader.
“Oh, zis one, she has spunk, no?”
The other two boys had stopped their advance, waiting to see what the Eastman did.
Flint is trying to Secure an Advantage through aggression, with the goal to convince these raiders that she’s not to be trifled with. This is a roll +iron. Her Iron is 2. Ooh, only a 2 on the action die, for 4 total. And the Challenge dice? 6 and 10. That’s a miss. Her momentum is only +4, so it will be of no help. Time to Pay the Price. In this case, is the Eastman confident because they are well-armed or because there’s a 4th raider behind her? Let’s ask the Oracle — I roll a 73. So, it’s the second option.
Being surrounded, this is now a Dangerous situation. She is ambushed, so Flint is ambushed as she Enters the Fray. It’s a roll +wits, which is her weakest stat at 1. However, the Action die shows 6, so surely a 7 is enough? Right? The Challenge dice have other ideas, both come up a 7. Not only is this a miss, but with a Challenge dice match, there’s also “a heightened negative outcome, a complication, or new danger”. Hmm, I’m not sure what that means quite yet.
As for Paying the Price for the miss, the most obvious bad thing would be for her to get hurt by the ambusher. Thus, her miss will trigger the Endure Harm move. She hasn’t been able to recover from her fight with the wolf the previous day, so her Health is at +3. Dangerous foes inflict 2 harm, so she’s down to +1 Health. Her Iron at +2 is higher than her new Health, so it’s a roll +iron. The Action die is a 5, for a total of 7. The Challenge dice came up 3 and 10, for a weak hit. “You press on,” the move says.
We still have to resolve the matter of the match on the previous roll. Oh, Oracle, what wisdom do you have for me? 86. “It requires you to expend resources: Suffer -supply.” So, mechanically, that means Flint’s Supply drops from +4 down to +2. Let’s start writing the narrative, and see how I can weave this in.
The Eastman nods his head slightly, and as Flint turns to see what he is gesturing at, she feels the pommel of a sword slam into the base of her skull. She is a hunter, not a soldier, and she cries out and looses her arrow. It burrows into the ground harmlessly.
She stumbles away, dropping her bow and clutching her neck. A welt is already beginning to form. As she regains her composure, the ground sways beneath her feet. The men chuckle.
These are terrible odds. It’s a Battle, a dance of sinew and steel, and it’s over before Flint knows it. She has only her courage to defend her, so this is a roll +heart, which is 2. I palm the 6-sided die and roll. The Action die bounces on the table once or twice, then settles on a 5. Another result of 7. I blow on the Challenge dice for good luck, then roll… a 2 and 4! This is a strong hit, which spells unconditional success. She drives off the raiders and they leave her alone! She will never know how, though, it all happened so fast! She gets a momentum boost, too, from +4 to +6.
Flint is gasping on the road. She sees the last of the raiders fleeing east, loping as best he can. She has a white-knuckle grip on her knife, which is coated in human blood. His blood, looking at the trail he’s leaving behind.
She stands for a moment, listening intently, eyes darting back and forth, but the only sound is her sharp breath and the only sight is blood and mud. Her head is a red fog, thick with memories of their hands grabbing her, her hands scratching and clawing, her boot connecting with a leering face, the swish of her blade, and their angry and fearful cries.
She picks up her bow and salvages what arrows she can. Only two look serviceable. Broken shafts litter the road, trampled underfoot during the battle. She takes the pieces, hoping to salvage the heads and feathers. A few paces away lies a sword, its pommel wet with blood. Her blood. As she bends to pick it up, stars flash across her vision and she nearly vomits.
Carefully to stay upright, she kneels and takes the sword. It bears the make of the Eastman. She retreats back to her camp. It is just afternoon, but she follows an animal trail deeper into the bush. Surrounded by scrub, she sits down against the trunk of a tree, downs her water-skin, and tries to get some rest to clear her head.
This passes for Making Camp, so I roll +supply (2). Drat, the Action die is only a 1, for 3 total. The challenge dice are 1 and 5, resulting in a weak hit. I’d rather save my momentum, so the one option I’ll choose is Recuperate, which brings Flint’s Health from +1 to +2.
When she comes to again, it’s late afternoon. She blinks a few times, and she can hear the stream over the throbbing in her head. She turns it a few times experimentally, and is pleased that she feels more or less like she woke up this morning. She lost a day of travel and most of her quiver of arrows, but finds herself happy to be alive and intact.
She searches the banks for berries, and the bushes for supple branches suitable to become shafts. The Resupply role is a roll +wits, so I add a roll of 2 to her Wits of 1. That 3 doesn’t best the Challenge dice’s 4 and 10, so it’s a miss. She still gets +2 to her Supply, bringing it back to +4, but it will cost her -2 momentum. She’s back to +4 Momentum — in this case, a worthwhile trade.
She spends the afternoon cutting branches for arrow shafts and filling her belly with berries. As the stars come out, she refills her quiver again. The attack weighs on her, though.
I am going to make a move that I should have made in response to the combat before, and that’s Test Your Spirit. That’s -2 to her Spirit, which drops to +3 now. Her Spirit is still better than her Heart, so we roll +spirit. Action die says 2, so that’s 5. Hurray, the Challenge dice are double 2’s. Not only is that a strong hit, but the Challenge dice match signals a new opportunity! To resolve the hit, I choose “Shake it off”, so her Momentum drops a point to +3, but her Spirit gains 1 to go back up to +4.
She thinks over the morning, her actions, and the way the battle on the road played out. She decides she’s proud of herself. Fates know, she’s heard enough horror stories about highwaymen to know what could have happened! And yet here she is, warm and safe.
She spends the night here, which is enough to invoke the Make a Camp move again. Her Supply is now +4, and I roll a 3. That 7 is more than enough to beat the 1 and 3 on the Challenge dice: a strong hit! I get to choose 3 options. Recuperate again, for sure. I’ll take Relax, and… Focus. The resulting +1 additions bring up Flint’s stats to +3 Health, +5 Spirit, and +4 Momentum. I can’t wait to see what awaits Flint when she continues her journey!
Awesome, Chuck Durfee. Very cool use of the Battle move (I had my fingers crossed for ya).
ReplyDeleteNice to see that Flint had a couple of strong hits and now has momentum on her side. Can't wait to see what happens next.
I'm really digging your little vignettes! About how long playtime wise is each of your chapters?
ReplyDeleteJustin Gordon it takes about an hour. I write them as I go. If I were just playing, maybe 20-30 minutes.
ReplyDelete