Session 1B

 Session 1B:

3 players (2 newbs, 1 w/5e experience) roll three characters apiece.  Rules for rolling one of my lvl 0 red shirts are: 3d6 - no dropping low dice, roll straight down the stat list, you get 4 hp, roll 1d6 for gender (1-3 male, 4-6 female...there are no other options because we're being realistic here).  So these 9 red shirts step into the arena to fight some giant crawdads!!!

Unlike the hapless saps from the night prior, this group had 6 spearmen and 3 archers and actually developed tactics! Ok yes, I helped them understand what spears attacking from the second rank means and what advantages a phalanx has... The archers began volleying as the spearmen closed in on the 4 craymen...admittedly I was a bit gun shy from the previous massacre - again, I want my players thinking about tactics and playing to win.  Hot take: A Judge (me) with military training and a working use of historical military tactics should not use life knowledge against his players who have no frame of reference.  

What do I mean? If I'm teaching someone how to play, I should give them a model to work with...this way they can think from a model and assess whether or not they have a chance.  I describe the craymen as kinda ambling around.  They will have to make considerations if they face a group of boarmen (orcs) working in a phalanx or they face a group of gnolls using skirmisher tactics.  By giving them this frame of reference for tactics, I now have more freedom to vary behavior and tactics of my monsters which helps with world building - no 30 minute lore dumps about gnoll ancestry...they fight as skirmishers, making them more than reskinned hitpoints, and if the PCs want to find out why, they have IN GAME means and motives to find that out.  If they don't care, then no loss to me, maybe they be interested in why, when delving into some bugman burrow, the bugmen call their treasure hordes "evidence rooms" or why their religion allows them to steal under the eternal law of "civil asset forfeiture".  Who knows!?

Anyway, the phalanx/archer formation worked great, especially once they figured out the charge mechanic.  I don't think our redshirts even took a scratch.  The crowd boo'd loudly. Were they booing the vanquished craymen? The PCs? Your handsome Judge? Hard to say...but they weren't satisfied.  SO, a very special and very expensive asset was unleashed...The arena gates rolled open, loosing a giant Giant Heron. Yes like the bird

Like this guy to the right only cuz magiks or something its like 20ft tall!  Watch those talons and that bite! The first round had some hits and some misses on the giant bird but the formation was holding.  That didn't last long as the heron hit with both his attacks on his first round. In one swoop, one PC was smooshed like a bug and another was on the wrong end of that beak.  Thanks to a particularly good role, the heron tilted his head back and the group watch in horror as a comrade shaped lump slid down the long neck of the heron. Yes!

Round two had the PCs do some more damage causing the bird to try and push everyone back with its wing attack (like a dragon's breath weapon).  Two characters failed their save throws and ended up about 10 feet back and prone.  This probably saved their lives though.  Irony. Next time round for the heron, resulted in another smooshing and an even fuller belly.

But by now the archer/spear combo was too much and the crowd's bird-blood lust was satisfied.  One player joked about cutting the beast open to get the guys out...he was delighted when I told him he could absolutely do that! Guts spilled, and i sent that same nurse out to show the group the mortal wounds table. This time the results were: permanent brain damage, an amputated right arm, a paraplegic, and a quadriplegic...save vs death every MONTH...brutal.  I don't know if they'll get to use these guys but it'll be awesome to see them try. 

This group was led through the same "outfitter" experience by Mercutio as the last as will the final group...summary of that and session 1C to follow. What's it BDubs says? Siri, this so interesting! Read me the wikipedia entry on the H34v3n's G4t3 cult...