Hullo, folks,

This past weekend, I ran the Desolation scenario, "Frontier Justice", on folks at the Ottawa local convention, CanGames. As promised, here's the report on the game taken from my blog entry on it...

I got to the gaming table around 1:20 pm, and started to set up for the game. (Thanks to Ray for sorting the Style chips while I got everything else out for the game!) Once the game sheets were laid out at 1:30 pm in preparation for the 2:00 pm games (players can either pre-register for games and pay to play, guaranteeing themselves a spot in the games, or wait until half an hour before a game is scheduled, and just sign up for the game, paying nothing), I saw that the Desolation game had six players signed up for it, so the game was full. Another player signed up for the game within a few minutes, and two more signed up as well, giving me nine potential players, but only the first six would get in. The other three could replace players from among the first six if one or more of them did not show up for the game. I needn't have worried on that count, as the six players who had signed up for the game all showed up before the starting time of 2:00 pm.

The scenario was called "Frontier Justice", and is a unique Desolation adventure in that the players are playing the Oruskan races (i.e., orcs, goblins, and kobolds) for this one. The scenario, "Frontier Justice", can be summarised as follows: The players are part of an Oruskan settlement and the expected supplies have not arrived. The chief of the Burning Shoulder tribe is angry, and dispatches the player characters to find out what happened to them. The player characters eventually track down what happened to the supplies and encounter a major human threat that could potentially destroy the Burning Shoulder tribe unless they stop it. The player characters for this scenario include Arsh'val, the Orc Blood Rune mage; E'klaan, the Kobold Spider Primalist; Gath'terra, the Goblin Archer; Mer'mi Lack, the Goblin Merchant; O'klaan, the Kobold Hunter (and brother of E'klaan); and Wrunk'ha'mak, the Orc Warrior. An...interesting mix of characters, to say the least.

The game ended up being somewhat of a mess... even though in retrospect it was pretty enjoyable for the most part, and frustrating for me and three other players at times. Three of the players, Ray from P.E.I. and his daughter and Douglas, had played the game before, but the other three players, all younger fellows, were new to the game. The game started off pretty well, with the players establishing their characters in the opening scene, as Car'ook, the leader of the tribe, told them what they were being sent to do, and that he didn't want them to come back without the supplies. The group got itself somewhat organised, and things went off the rails somewhat. The three younger players were coming to the game from a D&D background, and it showed. Despite the written character backgrounds and material that they had for the characters and the background and history on Scondera (the game world) that I gave the players at the beginning of play, they not only played the characters as kobolds and goblins a la hack 'n slash, but they didn't interact well with their fellow tribe mates, despite the nature of the Desolation game world and the importance of one's Oruskan tribe mates to each other in this world. Add to this the fact that two of the players seemed to fixate on game mechanical elements rather than on the roleplaying aspects of it all. Furthermore, the two younger guys playing the Blood Rune Mage and the Spider Primalist had serious problems getting a handle on the magic they were playing (despite the sheet of guidelines that I provided for them), and that added to the frustration of the three other players. One of the worst elements of their play was the Goblin archer trying to do the job of the Kobold hunter, and the Orc Blood Mage trying to play the role of the Goblin merchant. I spoke to the three players in question about this during the 5-minute break about half-way through the game, and the guys playing the Goblin archer and the Kobold Spider Primalist made a bit more effort to get into the characters in the second half of the game, but the other one... *sigh*

There are a few SPOILERS for the scenario below so be warned... Just skip a couple of paragraphs.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

W
A
R
N
I
N
G
!!

As for the game itself, there were some definitely good moments over the four hours of play, and the scenario finished up pretty much the way I saw it was going to go with about an hour to play. The group of players was essentially the three players trying to get things done and accomplish the goal set out by their tribal chief, and the three players more interested in analysing the game mechanically as we played, and trying to get a handle on what was different about it from D&D. The group didn't stay cohesive, with several of the players going off to do their own things, despite the supposed party leader's decisions, and this slowed them down and at times slowed play down as well. Like I said, frustrating at times. The party did make their way to the outpost to the south, where they got to tangle with some of the strange Desolation creatures and beasties, followed the tracks of the wagons from there and encountered a merchant who gave them some big clues as to what was going on and who was responsible for the theft of the supplies. When they reached the human settlement, they spent too much time arguing and debating in the woods nearby the best way to try and get into the fortified location, all the while knowing that guard patrols were in the area (because the Kobold hunter had spent three hours of game time off scouting the village, and avoiding patrols). In the end, the party of characters was forced to flee for home after killing the patrol that came upon them while they debated ways into the village, and warn their tribe mates.

Some of the highlights of play was the interaction between the various party members, especially when they were working together. The guy playing Wrunk'ha'mak using his healing on Mer'mi Lack when the merchant got slashed by a sword that the party picked up in the outpost ruins, when Arsh'val accidentally hit him with it. Mer'mi Lack trading the short bow they had recovered from a goblin body for the long bow possessed by Gath'terra, and then the goblin archer realising that he needed the "firepower" of the longer bow when they got into battle. Mer'mi Lack convincing the others to stay back when they encountered the trader, Fritz. I was afraid the three younger players were going to attempt to just kill the merchant and his family, and then loot their wagons. Mer'mi Lack convinced them to stay back, spoke to the trader, and got some valuable information as well as trading the human doll they recovered at one point for some medicine, and Fritz being so impressed with him that he gave them the orc cleaver and goblin crafted bow as "a token of his respect" for Mer'mi Lack. There was the wonderful irony of E'klaan, the Spider Primalist, being bitten by a fern spider (fortunately he survived, only due to the fact that I gave the player a bit of credit in terms of trying harder, and the fact that his totem wouldn't want to really kill him at that point).

I had hoped that the players of the Goblin archer and the Kobold hunter would work well together, but was somewhat disappointed. While the girl playing the hunter made every effort to work with the guy playing the archer, he kept trying to do her job for her, and she will ill disposed towards him, finally taking her own initiative in the second half to scout out the human village alone. Several of the other characters that I thought would work well together didn't, and the guy playing the Kobold Spider Primalist (the brother of the Kobold Hunter) gave no notice of the fact that he was that character's brother. I got the feeling that the three younger players didn't even read their character backgrounds at all, just figured on playing the other fantasy system's equivalent of the racial types. This spoiled my overall enjoyment of the game, to be honest, and the nitpicking on some of the details was very distracting for me, and interfered with the flow of the story. I gave the players in the game a neat surprise - the folks at GreyMalkin Designs had sent me some t-shirts and other stuff to give out as prizes for the game (thanks, Jamie, you're a real mate!), and that came as a neat treat for the players. Ray and his daughter told me when we finished the game just before 6:00 pm that the two of them had fun, but that they were frustrated at times. Two of the younger players said that they liked the game, had a good time, and that they liked the "strangeness" of the game world and the uniqueness of the beasties, as well as the simplicity of the game system. Douglas also told me that he enjoyed the game, and liked the difference in terms of playing the so-called monsters, the Oruskan races. So all of their comments made me feel a bit better.

So another Desolation game at CanGames successfully run, and some new players introduced to the game. Can't wait for the next CanGames.

Thanks for the report, John. Sorry some of the players spoiled some of the fun. We have run into a few people that just want to hack and slash and collect gold -- which is all fine and good, but of course, not the point of Desolation.

Hullo, Jamie,



You're welcome, Jamie. All part of the service, and just going to show that I am doing my best at running and promoting the game as I get the chance to do so.



That was pretty much the sore point for me with the game. Here they were, having a chance to play a game like Desolation which is so different than a lot of the standard fantasy games, and all they wanted was a hack 'n slash game with the D&D feel to it. Too many gamers don't want to experience new games, see new ways of playing stereotyped races, and that sort of thing. That's what "Frontier Justice" was all about, methinks, but at least the other three players had a relatively good time playing the game. In retrospect, I still enjoyed running it, but can't help feel that I didn't do a good enough job somehow.

Well, too bad that you were not that lucky with all of the players, but it was nevertheless an interesting report. And if you and some of the players still enjoyed it, it cannot have been that bad after all.
I'm really glad that this kind of h&s gamer type is quite uncommon here in Germany, I never had one of them when I ran a game at a Con.

Hullo, Gligamesh,



There is that.



To be honest, I think that the gaming experience of players who go to conventions varies quite a lot, and in actual fact, with a week's reflection on the game behind me, I'm glad those three players played in the game and would like to think that their experience with Desolation was a good one, and a learning one as well. Just goes to show that you never know what you're going to end up with player-wise at any convention.