So I'm just starting to get into table top RPGs. Coming from a wargaming background, I was attracted to the tactical combat of The Fantasy Trip, and I recently had the opportunity to GM a game of the pre-programmed adventure Death Test with friends, two of which had never played any kind of RPG or dungeon crawler before. Here are my thoughts as a first time GM, running a game with brand new players.
This being a very first play-through, I didn’t want to kill everyone off
too soon, and after reading about how deadly Death Test can be (and TFT
combat in general), I decided to have the players build 38 point
characters (32 points being considered "starting" characters.) This was probably too drastic on my part, as I think the
party could have used a bigger challenge earlier on. The three PCs
were: Vespia the wizard, Krog the definitely-not-an-orc-in-disguise
greatsword wielding warrior, and Philip the deadeye crossbowman. I also
ran a fourth character, Milo the halfling ninja, armed with bola and
throwing stars, In addition to controlling all the monsters in the dungeon.
Highlights of the game include Vespia the clumsy wizard missing nearly
every single roll to cast a spell except for two, both illusions. The
first was a bear, who inherited its maker's clumsiness and missed every
single attack roll it made. The second illusion Vespia created was a
duplicate of himself, which provided a much needed tactical advantage in
the last fight. Krog, the party’s tank, did tank things until getting
zapped by lightning and crit-hit by a magic fist, which took him down to
exactly 0HP. Luckily the party had a health potion by that point and
were able to get him back into the fight. He also managed to befriend a
spider early on, which rode on his shoulder for the duration of the
dungeon. Milo’s bola was quite useful for tripping up enemies and
setting up Krog for a few quick kills. Milo was also the party's only
loss: crushed to death by a giant club.
Philip was probably the real MVP of the party however. Nothing too fancy
or showy, just consistently hitting with the crossbow and rolling high
damage. He did roll a critical hit and triple damage some poor goblin
though, leaving the creature’s spine attached to a wall.
The party managed to reach the final room of the dungeon with an appropriately cinematic ending fight with a giant. Vespia managed to distract the giant with an illusion, while the party attempted to run past and escape, getting quite the surprise at finding the door locked and their escape blocked. This was where Milo met his end as well, crushed flat. Vespia, out of desperation and with only a few ST left, began swinging his wizard’s staff at the giant, criting and rolling double damage. Philip peppered the giant with bolts, while Krog, himself down to only one ST, managed to strike the killing blow.
Overall everyone enjoyed themselves and I think it served as a good first introduction to dungeon-crawling. I really want to lean more heavily into the roleplay aspect of the game the next time we get together.
Things I would like to do better: I need to get more familiar with the rules. I spent a lot of time looking things up and I hate to waste player’s time. As I get more comfortable with the system I hope to get more comfortable winging it and making quick judgment calls as well.
I liked the tactical aspect of the combat, but several times during play
we wound up in kind of a stalemate of the two groups just standing
still and rolling dice at each other. As we start adding Talents into
the mix (we played with just Melee/Wizard) hopefully that will open up
more interesting options.
Final party thought: I know Death Test is a combat focused adventure, but for the sake of variety and to aid in roleplay I would have liked to have seen some more traps or environmental hazards to contend with, or maybe even a puzzle to solve. If I run Death Test again I would like to add some in myself.
The party emerges victorious