Red Box Hack - Temple of the Dragon Priests

I played a game of this last night with a pick up group at hix's house con. Overall, we had a blast.

Character generation was a highlight, with everyone enjoying the classes and talent picks. We then had a small changeover as a pre-planned game began, and two players left, passing their characters to other people. Both characters appealed to the new players, luckily, so that was fine.

We had time to go through about half the dungeon I had planned - this involved the 'find out stuff in town' scenes, getting there, fighting a monster that was hunting from the dungeon, and then taking out a goblin tribe in the old temple.

The first fight was with a tough wolf-beast, and the four characters only just survived (two were taken out). This was partly that I made it too tough, and partly that one particular power was overpowered. However, a burst of cunning tactics by the remaining two players had them defeat it okay.

Then they scouted out the old temple, got spotted by goblin guards. The scouting pcs took out the guards, then there was a big battle versus the goblin warlord with 12 more goblins. The warlord had a neat power that allowed him to redirect damage onto his mooks, which was a lot of fun for all. This guy also had the first treasure they were after.

Then the sneaky snake character got into the goblin area and scouted it out inside, and another battle began to take out the goblin shaman (monster). The shaman had the stun power, and this was another close fought battle, with people still down hp after the first one. They won, and everyone levelled up.

That brought us to the end of our time, so we finished up there (leaving the dragon priest cult untouched in the lower levels, maybe they'll get theirs another time).

We discussed what worked, and everyone liked the simple system and combat, and the fact there were a few tactical options in there.

Seems like the system is basically solid, though. I think it really just needs the GM planning section sorted out and a few more tweaks.

It had a lot of the cool tactical feel of Agon, but with the emphasis on teamwork instead of individual glory, and a more light-hearted attitude. Great stuff.