Returning to Sellswords and Spellslingers, I decided to play the same scenario again, but this time with more focus on what the actual goal of the scenario was. The PCs start on one table edge and must escape off the other. Between them and safety lie four Orc Brutes and a Troll.
The baddies are all set up randomly, which resulted, once more, in the PCs being surrounded at set-up. Three Orc Brutes were within or close to charge range even before the heroes had tried to move. The other Orc Brute and the Troll were across the far side of the table, probably hoping to pick off exhausted PCs and eat them.
As our heroes moved out, Wizard tried to cast a fireball but failed, while Scout moved out yelling, "I'll find a path for you all!"
As Fighter tried to work out which way she was meant to be going, another Orc Brute appeared beside her. Cleric was so stunned she failed to move, but all of the monsters decided that this would be the best time to charge. Unfortunately, the plucky Elven Scout quickly found himself being assaulted by an Orc Brute, but he managed to wound it. Fighter had the better of the Orc attacking her, while Cleric hammered the one facing her. Then some Orc minions wandered up, wondering what all the brouhaha was about.
The heroes fought bravely as an Orc minion leapt out of the bushes near Cleric, only to be cut down without Cleric even pausing for a breath. However, she was wounded now. Scout discovered the better part of valour, but took a wound to his back as he raced off. Wizard hid in some bushes.
Seeing her chance, Wizard launched a fireball at the group of Orc minions, burning three of them to a crisp. Distracted by the cries of their feeble companions, the Orc Brutes let down their guard. Two were slain and one was wounded again. The odds were looking better for our heroes. Swiftly dealing with her opponent, Fighter turned to aid Cleric, only to see her fall to an Orc blade. Ahead of her, Fighter could see Scout and Wizard racing across the badlands and within sight of their goal. Meanwhile, the Troll was wandering around aimlessly.
Fighter sprinted off as more Orc Brutes arrived on the battlefield. An Orc minion leapt out of a bush and thrust a spear through Scout, just as he was within an ace of his goal. The poor Elf collapsed to the ground as Wizard raced past him to safety. Fighter followed as fast as she could. It was just fast enough for her to outdistance and dodge the Orcs, and she was soon in the pub with Wizard toasting their fallen comrades.
Conclusions
This game went better than the last, mainly because I focused on the objective and not on slaughtering Orcs. However, my heroes still faced a massive number of wandering monsters. The first five times I drew an event card, it was a wandering monster! And then there were others later. In total, the five starting monsters were reinforced by 5 more Orc Brutes and 10 more Orc Warriors/Minions!
"Inconceivable!" I hear you cry, although I think that word does not mean what you think it means.
It was certainly wildly improbable, as was having the heroes surrounded at the start again. To add to the improbability, the main reason Wizard escaped so easily was rolling two 20s for activation in successive turns, so she got a massive number of actions for running. Unfortunately for Fighter and the others, they got more than their fare share of failed activations with Cleric and Fighter both suffering a couple of turns where they did not pass any activations at all.
In some ways, the whole game was gloriously random, and it was good fun, but, as I noted in the previous post on this game, I got the same feeling from it that I did from A Song of Blades and Heroes (unsurprisingly, I suppose). I am not convinced that I would want to play it as a campaign because of the randomness. It seems hard to check the fallen and rescue them with the way the activation die rolls go, and that could lead to too high a death toll of PCs. I want deaths in the party to mean something, not just be minor speed bumps along the way. I could house-rule it to create greater continuity, but I have other games that don't require that. On the other hand, I could completely see picking up Sellswords and Spellslingers for an occasional single game or maybe for a mini-campaign of a few scenarios, and I shall keep a record of Fighter and Wizard so that they can return if the mood does.
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