Playtest Report

[thegoodassyrian]

I had the chance to get together with some friends on Sunday night and play some more ZeFRS. This time we started earlier and I had a much better grasp on the system, so we actually got through generating 5 characters (with two people who had zero experience with ZeFRS and 3 who had only the experience of generating one character) and finishing a fun adventure! It went very well, indeed.

The five characters were made using the most current version of the rules, with the addition of my idea of allowing each character to spend up to 10 points on *one* talent. The characters they came up with were:

* A Zingaran merc captain
* An Aesir berserker
* An Aesir "Ice Princess"
* An Aquilonian "Amazon"
* A scout/bowman from Khitai

Each player chose a different talent to put 10 points in (Personal Magnetism, Damage, Movement , Two Weapon Fighting, and Animal Reflexes respectively) and each one seemed to have a good niche in the adventure. Amazingly, I think that every single character weakness came into play during the adventure, including Accident Prone (twice!!!), so they earned their points! ;D

The adventure itself was a playtest of the one that I am modifying for inclusion in the Scrolls of the Red Brotherhood. It went well and I now have a pretty good idea about the appropriate power level of the enemies and foes for beginning characters. They did well in combat, were quite challenged by the climatic battle, and I had to tone down the supernatural beastie at the very end a bit.

I had also intended to try out the two different ideas for handling called shots in melee, but it turns out that they were largely uninterested, probably because the fights were all pretty close run things and I guess that they decided that they couldn't afford the chance.

Overall:

* I liked the effect of allowing the one starting talent at 10 points. It didn't seem overwhelming and gave each character something that they were really good at.
* The game ran really smoothly, and once we got in the groove of using the chart it went much more quickly than I thought it would.

I think that ZeFRS may become my new default system for S&S! The players really liked it, too, and they are already asking me when the next game is...


TGA

[thegreyelf]

Yeah, my one real problem with the rules as they stand is that "aiming points" give you widely varied effects on a successful hit...but there's no effect on how hard it is to hit your opponent based on the aiming point. The head, arms, legs, hands, etc., should be harder to hit than the main body mass.

Something for the scrolls, perhaps, and for the next edition of the rules, once we shake down the bugs?

[markkrawec]

TGA - Fantastic! I'm eager to read your adventure & see what you settled on as appropriate opposition for beginners.

GreyElf - I'm more & more convinced there should be a negative column modifier to hit at least the head & maybe the limbs as well. Or possibly a big one to hit a hand or foot, but not to hit the limb itself. It's none too hard to smash a guy in the arm or leg during a match, but knocking something from his hand or pinning his foot are another thing entirely.

[thegreyelf]

How about an optional entry giving a -1 column shift to hit a limb, -2 for extremities, and -3 for the head? The rationale for the head is that while it's a larger target than the hands or feet...it's also bound to be better protected in a fight.

Actually, the real rationale is that the head is a near instant kill...but the rationale we'd use in the rules...

[markkrawec]

The greater penalty for the head is actually sensible as well as expedient. It's a longer trip from where your hands are to the opponent's head, plus people are a lot quicker than one would think at jerking it out of the path of an oncoming object.

[thegreyelf]

I'll add a footnote into the PDF suggesting column shifts to the Combat Differential based on aiming point.