This world is certainly fit for a BoL game as well

http://eotbeholder.deviantart.com/art/The-Only-Fantasy-World-Map-245738593

 

Hi!
 
Yesterday I directed a session of BoL. The group was formed by 2 mercenary beshaari (one noble, one tracker) and 2 inhabitants of malakut, one sorcerer and his spearwoman bodyguard. The idea was that the beshaari noble needed a ritual to summon one of his ancestors in order to recover a long lost heirloom, and the sorcerer asked them to help him find a rare desert lizard (he needed part of his body for his rituals) as payment. The beshaari agreed.
 
Obviously the starting adventure got quite derailed when they had to go up the mountains (not ideal terrain for the desert runners) and a band of fled slaves wrongly (??? So he claims at least… ) identified the sorcerer as their past slaver and proceeded to attack the party. The ex-slaves were obviously under the influence of something greater given their keenness in throwing themselves at the heroes’ blades. The ex-slaves were then tracked down to a valley where a ritual with the paradigmatic wench was being sacrificed in order to destroy malakut and all that fancy stuff. Battle with local cultists and summoned demons ended up with them saving the day and discovering a nice cache of stolen gold and produce from malakut caravans.  Simple and easy, as it should be in a short session.
 
IMPRESSIONS
The triad of attributes-combat-careers worked well. Mind ended up being much more important than what we first thought, so well done. We like the system.
 
The combat system works well and is cinematic if you like to describe what happens instead of just saying “I attack, I shot”. We felt good, and we used a lot of modifiers for over the top descriptions and heroic feats, like the spearwoman using the spear as a pole to jump (all hail pole dancer career) on the back of a large demon monster (red one, obviously) and riding it using the attacked chains to its tusks and horns. The system worked well, even if a high defense (the sorcerer and spearwoman had a Defense of 3) proved a tad high and detracted somewhat f

Nox wrote:

I always endorse tinkering as it is what brings about new ideas and eventually new games. I am going to disagree with your thought pattern here not based on system mechanics but rather based on genre. The "death spiral" of wound penalties is not suited to swords and sorcery where badly injured hero`s commonly ignore their wounds and press on to be victorious. I think this would be well suited in a gritty dogs of war setting though (happy)

Agreed, specially the first. I play Ars Magica regularly, that uses a death spiral mechanic and it is extremely dangerous (also becuase recovery can be extremely lethal ith gangrene and all that). While cool, that mechanic does not meet the standards of S&S at all.

You can always use a system of consequences. When you lise a combat round you accumulate a consequence. When consenquences are equal or higher than your main characteristic (use strength for combat), you are knocked out/lose the engagement. Or something like that.

Xavi

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Well worth of being in this section.

The Spears of Dyr
Some of the desert tribes of the Beshaar desert have some special spears that they use while raiding or going to war. These are long, sleek spears with a hole near the extreme of their steely point. When the Beshaari charge mounted on their desert runners the spears make an eerie sound when the wind passes through those holes. The uncanny sound petrifies their enemies, that feel the rage of the storm coming after them. When they strike, ribbons of lightning seem to strike the enemy that is hit by the force of a mighty thunder.

While not common, these spears are known by the desert tribes, and most of them have (or have had) a few in their history. Most legendary heroes of the beshaari used to carry one, and most ruling lineages of the tribes tend to have one or two of them as a sign of ruleship.

These revered spears are created by a cadre of wise old men that live near the ruins of the desert city. They combine ancient smithing techniques with secrets of old ages to create weapons that will pierce the toughest protection and strike fear into the enemies of the desert raiders. It is rumored that some of the smithing is done by Dyr himself, but these tend to be dismissed as mere rumors

Rules-wise, the Spears of Dyr are Rare alchemical weapons with the following stats:
[list=1]
[*]Grant the Beshaari war cry (boon) to anyone wielding one while mounted.  
[*]+1D6 to the damage (2D6 total, 2D6+2 if 2 handed)
[/list]
 
One of my players wanted a special weapon at the cost of 2 Boons. I gave him that. He is a hot headed noble, so it fits with his concept.

Cheers,
Xavi

PD: I have been trying to work the word Uncanny into a post for some time now. It is certainly uncanny how many times Lin Carter uses that word in his young Thongor book, that I just reread xD