I invited a few coworkers to join me yesterday for a run through “Last Flight of the Red Sword”. This was my first time running the game, and their first time playing with ICRPG rules. One was a long-time Pathfinder junkie, and no stranger to TTRPGs; the other was just dipping their toes into the gaming scene. Both were super patient with me as a GM, and enthusiastic as players.
I had hoped a third player would show up, but he never did. Since I only had two players, I allowed them each to choose two characters. This worked out really well.
The Setup
I gave a brief summary of the rules and mechanics. I missed a few things, which came up later during play organically. Both players were attentive, patient, and forgiving! This helped me a lot.
I used the characters from Heroes of the Hammer, and allowed both players to pick two. I should have spent some time at the beginning gong over their characters, and interactively exploring their starting loot. I also should have better familiarized myself with their starting loot before the game started, so that I could better tune encounters. Next time I’ll be better prepared!
I need to provide some info on the weapons and spells of these characters so folks know what they have to work with. I also need to remember to more fully explain EFFORT bonuses, as the Heroes characters have some substantial bonuses that aren’t immediately obvious. One person was playing Cinder, and using weapons despite her insane Magic EFFORT bonus.
The same player also played Forge 4, who was un-hittable given his AC. Hilariously, he failed almost every DEX check and took way more falling down damage than combat damage. I need to remember to build real threats to all the characters the next time, despite any high AC they may have.
I found it hard to find a plausible reason for the party to bother boarding the Red Sword! I begged their indulgence in assuming a narrative reason for them to board, rather than just high-tail it out of there. This caused a little friction at a couple points, but both players were troopers and worked with me to keep things moving. I definitely need a good, satisfying plot hook to get the party onto the Red Sword!
The Game
Both players found the mechanics immediately friendly and useful. Table-based turn order, timers, and target numbers were grasped quickly. Finding loot was eagerly embraced. Both players remarked how easy it was for them to get into the thick of things with no prior experience.
Using advice from the Discord channel, I rolled frequently for the occurrence and quantity of mutant Reptoids. This worked well at the start, but I really should have better familiarized myself with the characters: the first three encounters were no real threat to the players! They didn’t fully understand this until the third encounter, when they realized they’d taken no meaningful damage.
It was also at this point that I remembered that I’d forgotten to give them the Gift of the Warp Shell starting bonus! It didn’t make much difference to the outcome, in the long run; but it’s something I need to remember for next time.
The players were scared of, and threatened by, Gargantua, but Forge 4 dropped it to under 1/2 HP in one shot with his chem-rail. It was a foregone conclusion to all of us that they would defeat this thing, which took some of the edge off. I did not complicate things by adding more Reptoids, which is definitely something I’ll need to do the next time I run this!
Once they discovered the major clues (ship was a bomb, aimed at star, star was evil), they were all in for finishing the task. They were eager to find the final bits of information in Engineering, and didn’t balk at needing to manually overload the engines. The Session End die was a 2, which gave a tremendously fun and energetic climax. They worked together to jump into the void of space just as the Red Sword’s thrusters kicked in, and there was much celebration.
Conclusion
This was a super fun game to run! It had very clear start, middle and end points which the players picked up naturally. The Reptoid threat wasn’t quite sufficient to really tax the characters, so next time I’ll need to really work this better. I kept the Target Number at 10 through most of the game, because I didn’t know how hard to push the players. Next time I’ll need to remember to crank this up at least once or twice to complicate things.
The timer of the evil shock waves was super effective at discombobulating the characters. They did a great job of watching the decreasing timer as players but not letting that change their characters’ actions. There was a lot of falling down, which was actually hysterically funny at the table.
We all had a lot of fun. We all learned a lot. The players learned how insanely fun ICRPG is. I learned how much more I need to prep for a really good session!
I’m planning to run Red Sword a few more time for victims volunteers to get even more practice in before Origins Game Fair. If you’re planning to attend, please let me know - I’d love to meet you!
I’ve give myself a solid B for GMing, and the players definitely get As!