I ran the sample adventure of the Desolation core book "A Few Good Men" last Monday by using sample characters to introduce my players to the setting and rule system of Desolation. Now here's a short report about the session.

I had three players who took over the roles of Desmun of Westharbor (The Inquisitive Scholar), Krek of Kharhut (The Outcast Forester) and Tarl Ishrak (The Farmer With Faith). All in all a small group with only one real fighter (Krek). Therefore I decided to reduce the number of enemies in the combats.

The group travelled along the old Empire road and came to the dead tree with the man and the woman trapped in the cages. They talked to them and the group decided to free the apothecary. After they broke his cage, three carrion reapers attacked and the players realized that the Ubiquity system is fast and deadly and that they have to use their style points in a clever way to survive hard battles. With Desmun and Tarl wounded they went on and finally reached the town of Ridge River. Krek decided to wait outside the village to give his companions a better chance to get into Ridge River. They feared that arriving with a mongrel would make the townsfolk sceptical.
So only Desmun and Tarl entered the town and spoke to its mayor Kenly Grent. They spoke to the citizens and ate with them. The healer of the town also helped them to cure their wounds. In return for their hospitality Kenly wanted the characters to deal with the wizard problem at the near tower.
When two riders of a warlander band visited Ridge River during the following night the player characters decided to stay out of that business and the riders left when Kenly finally shouted at them. Outside of the village, Krek was sleeping in the cover of some bushes. He also saw the horsemen but decided not to react on them.
On the next morning, Desmun and Tarl left Ridge River and regrouped with Krek. They also had a young farmer from the town with them after they persuaded Kenly to give them some support. The young man led them to Greeley's farm where they found the farmer dead and were attacked by a core delver. Again, Desmun was badly injured but they found some old tools in the farm building and took them with them.
They reached the pine forest and when they saw the first of the harmless (which they of course didn't know) skeletons, Krek sneaked behind it and destroyed it with his sword. Same procedure with the second skeleton. Not until the third skeleton they realized that these undead creatures were perhaps frightening but totally harmless.
The party arrived at the tower and entered it where they encountered Crevin Laughner, the young sorcerer. They talked to him and were not sure whether to trust or kill him. They discussed for a long time until I decided to force a decision by letting the young farmer losing his nerves and attack the wizard. The player characters decided not to interrupt him and watched how Crevin perforated their companion with his magic (he rolled well and used the power of his wand - therefore the PCs were very impressed by the wizard's spell). But Crevin himself was quite weakened by Burn.
The PCs were unsure how to react and left the tower to get to safety. They examined the smaller destroyed buildings around the tower and found a mysterious phial with some fluid in it. Tarl tasted the potion but the only effect was his stomach tensing up. They finally decided to attack the wizard and entered the tower again. With the power of surprise and the burn-weakened sorcerer they knocked him out and enchained him. Then they examined the tower and took some runes and books with them but they didn't want to take too much. They feared that they might be suspected as magicians if they carried too much of such items with them.
When they came back to Ridge River they found it burning and attacked by the warband. In consideration of the enemy's superior numbers (and without the magic help of the wizard with which the adventure originally had planned) they decided not to enter the battle. They searched for shelter in the bushes around the town and waited until the next morning when the riders were gone and the village destroyed. They left the enchained Crevin and his amulet and staff near the burning ruins of Ridge River and went on south to leave this awkward place.

All in all the adventure didn't go in the planned direction but nonetheless it was much fun and the players enjoyed it. They liked Desolation very much and wanted to start a real campaign (what we actually did today). The fear of magic was a strong topic in the session and I think the PCs adopted this attitude (which was one reason why the plot went in another direction than planned).

Well done. Thanks for sharing!

One thing I've noted in the few chances I've had to play Desolation is the harsh aspect of it. The impulse to play heroic characters runs smack into the reality of survival in an uncompromising world. Characters can find themselves developing a pragmatic, sometimes fatalistic attitude.

I find it an interesting roleplaying challenge, and can certainly surprise you at times. In one game I ran, one of the player's reaction to finding kobolds as unexpected neighbors was wondering how viable they'd be as a food source.

Thanks for reading!

Yeah, my experiences until now are very similiar. It's interesting to see how the players adopt this harsh attitude of the Desolation setting. It's very difficult to predict their reactions. But it's much fun!

In your campaign, have any of the players chosen to play a spellcaster?

What kind of characters did they make?

Maybe I will write a report of our first game session of this new campaign later.

None of my players chose a spellcasting character though they liked the description of the free and dangerous magic system. I think they just don't like playing spellcasters.

Two of the players decided to carry over the sample characters they played in the introduction session (the farmer with faith and the outcast forester) and only changed names and background, the other two characters are an ex-legionnaire and an imperial scholar and healer.

Seems like a pretty good mix... some fighters and some thinkers.

I am curious how the scholar fares in your game... he never gets picked in convention games.

Well I think the pregenerated scholar is a little bit boring and "useless" with his selection of skills. The player who chose him in the introduction session liked to play a scholar and when he build his own character for the real campaign we are playing now he decided to give him some medicine skills to make him more useful for the party. I think that was a good decision. And he has the "Livesafer" talent, which is a very powerful one I think.

Hullo, Gilgamesh,

Thanks for posting the write-up of the playing of "A Few Good Men" that you ran.

I think the way that your game ran illustrates very nicely the fact that DESOLATION is not your typical fantasy rpg, and that the world of the After is quite harsh and demanding. That said, players who have come into DESOLATION from more traditional fantasy rpgs have told me that it is a challenge to both alter one's thinking in terms of the type of world that one finds in the game, and to play characters who have to be concerned with practical aspects of their characters.

To me, that makes DESOLATION all the more fascinating to me for the most part, and a bit more of a challenge to run as well.

Thanks again for posting the game session report. Lovely stuff.

Hullo, Gilgamesh,



I have a player or two in my gaming groups who are somewhat averse to playing spell casters, so you're not alone in that regard. Fortunately that's balanced out by a couple of players who always want to play mages!

The gaming group characters seem to be a good mix of types, and I love the fact that one of your players has taken the scholar. I'm kind of partial to them myself!

Hullo, Gilgamesh,



The Sample Character scholar isn't so much boring and useless, as he's pretty generic. The addition of the Medicine skills to the character was a good one on the player's part, medicine and healing abilities being quite important in the context of DESOLATION games, but scholarly knowledge of the Empire can be useful as well, if taken in the right context. Lost knowledge and lost arts are something that will facilitate the re-building, even if many are afraid of it. And some will want this character for their own use of the knowledge the character possesses.

Hm...maybe this depends on how the GM involves the character's skills in the adventure's plot. Anyway, the player of the scholar had the feeling that it would be better to give him some medicine skills and I think he didn't regret it until now.

@all: Thanks for reading!

Hullo, Gilgamesh,



You have to remember that regardless oif the character that one was Before, regardless of the Skills and abilities one had Before, in the After one has to be more than what one was (as player characters). That doesn't mean (in this case) of not being a Scholar, per se, it means doing what needs to be done with the Skills and abilities that one has. A lot of players forget that one can use Skills in an Un-Skilled state to, to a degree.

Besides, like I said, I'm biased toward scholars!

When I ran my own adventure at DC Gameday using the Pre-gen scholar, he worked quite well. He might be a bit generic, but I thought he is an interesting character, and so did the player. The players did complain that they didnt have a character withe the medicine skill. And now that I have run my 1st Desolation adventure, I would have to agree with them.

Hullo, Rocketfuel,

Welcome to the GMD forums! You'll find a lot of friendly folks here, willing to answer all of your questions. Just be careful about those carrion bird-like creatures that are descending towards--- OOPS, too late!



It's important to remember that Medicine Skill can be used Un-Skilled, as per the rules in the DESOLATION book (don't have my books with me, sorry), at a -2 to the Base Attribute of Intelligence. And of course spending Style points to assist with the roll is always a good thing!