Episode 6 - No Story 1

 This episode took a break from the story. 

Instead I talked about the design of the Roll 4 Saves.

Episode 5 - Fight at the Docks

 This episode picked up with Jaephing on duty.

To add a twist to our session, I through a new faction at the heist.

We randomly created a faction temporarily named the Low Nobles. A bunch of nobles that wish to secure artifacts to both hit the merchant class and to bolster their own position in the aristocracy.

This ended with a physical confrontation between the Blade Archivists and the Low Nobles had a brief dust up. During which, Jaephing handedly proved himself as the dove in, machete swinging.

Background Modifiers

I covered Roll 4 Saves' Backgrounds here. Looking it over will provide context for this post.

Background modifiers are setting specific addons to background. 

In a traditional fantasy game, these could be the PC race.

In an intrigue game, it might be a faction designation.

In a Pokemon, or Magic style game, it might be an elemental affinity.

In a real-world game,, it could be your nationality.

Examples can include:

• Academic - Orc
• Squalid - Brown Cloaks
• Noble - Grass Type
• Wild - Spanish

When either the base background or a modifier is triggered, the PC gains the bonus.

For example, an Orc gains bonuses when dealing with other Orcs, or taking action in an Orcish environment, or when using Orcish items.

Character Creation

Just like backgrounds, the player may pick what they like, or determine their modifier randomly.
I usually try to have about 10, but some setting may have more or less as appropriate.

Countdown Clue

I was looking for a version of clue with a player controlled killer, or some other mechanic to up the tension. I found some more complicated versions, but then I had an idea. Thus, Countdown Clue was born.

Materials

• Clue - The boardgame.
• RPG dice, specifically d4, d6, d8, d10, & d12.

Process

Play clue like the original rules prescribed. No intrigue cards, no individual abilities. Just move and guess.

But make the following changes.

• All players begin outside the house's front door.
• Players roll the normal 2d6 plus an additional RPG die, beginning with the d12.
• When the RPG die results in a 1 or 2, it drops down one size for all players.
• When a player rolls a 1 or 2 on the d4, they complete their turn as normal, after which they are eliminated.
• Eliminated players continue to observe and debunk guesses as normal.

Game End

The game ends when 1 of the players guesses correctly or when all of the players have been eliminated by the killer.

In the event all players have been eliminated by the killer, their spirits then make one final guess, based on the information the have. As they are dead, they can guess any room they wish. The players write their final guess before the hidden cards are revealed. The player(s) that guess the most hidden cards correctly, wins!

In Play

In play the game was fast. We played 3 games in about 35 minutes. With the additional die, the meeples practically soar around the house. 

The RPG die counting down has a double effect. First, players feel the visceral dread of the game coming to a close before having all of the information. Second, it slows down the meeples. 

When two or three rolls in a row resulted in 1s or 2s, everyone began to panic, but they couldn't traverse the hallways fast enough.

I also feel like other players were making better guesses, which improved the available information. Also, players were not spending as long thinking and making notes. Even though the timer was partially under our control (the dice only risk downsizing when you actually roll them), we still felt like we had to hurry.

In two games, I had the correct answer by my first turn with a d4. The other players had parts of the answer as well.

In the third game, another player and myself had two thirds of the correct guess. This game was also the quickest as we were all eliminated during the third round.

Episode 3 - Jaephing and Nala

 In this episode we chose Jaephing to be out main character.

We then went through the process of generating a plot.

We ended up with a police detective working for a cult, that wants to heist something from the Central Train Station. They tried to work Jaephing into the cause. Jaephing has their interest piqued, but so far has been reluctant.

Mistakes Were Made

One of the issues of running everything live, without editing, is fact that mistakes will be made. Here are the corrections for Jaephing so far.

1. Jaephing only had 1 Coin and 4 PD. So Jaephing should have 2 additional trappings. So I updated the character sheet to include the Rope d6, and Jack Knife Easy Nautical.

2. In episode 2 I had rolled that Jaephing was a female, but I forgot about this and later rerolled Jaephing to be a male. I am going to keep Jaephing as a male. I will explain my reasoning later.

And that is it so far.

This week, I'll try to do some setting posts.

Episode 2 - Characters

 In this episode we made 4 characters. Ugby, Thaki, Jaephing, and Laeth.

We used a weird table I made that gives you a series of vowels and consonants to throw together into random words.

We then randomly rolled the rest of the characters.

That was it really. 

Episode 1

 The ReLaunch of Roll 4 Saves is upon us. See previous post for an explanation.

This is the explainer episode.

I introduced myself, 

Hi, I'm Wayne.

I introduced the show,

This is an solo, actual-play, beta test.

I introduced the game system,

Start with a d6. Bump it up if something makes the roll easy, if you have a matching skill, and/or if you have a matching background. Bump it down if something makes the roll hard. A roll of 4 or higher avoids consequences.

I introduced the setting,

Pretty much just humans. But archipelagos separated by abyssal leviathans. Then Technology! and Airships! and the discovery of a continent. The continent is named Lurr. The greatest city on the continent is Nyrborg. Magic is a thing that exists, but it is weak.. There was once a great civilization in the world. Their towers and catacombs are testaments to their power. Electricity is generated by Furthstein, magic, glowing stones that can be threaded together to create more powerful currents.

That is pretty much it.