Playtest Report v2
THE CONTEXT.
After a trip on vacation, intense months of work, home renovation almost at its end and a baby shower to throw next month, we finally got the time to try and play cramOS again.
Differently from the other playtest, more than a month ago, we had what I would call the core table I currently run games to, solidified on our Daggerheart campaign.
Instead of starting out back in a settlement as the first playtest, we opened with the group at the door of the example burrow, which helped expedite the dungeoncrawl on a single session.
Before that, though, we had-
CHARACTER CREATION
The Mod system is vastly superior to the nightmare that was the first game, although rolling three parts each for new character was still much slower than expected - Mausritter, we can only aspire to be as clean.
The main adjustment must be the No Repeating Types Rule: once you are rolling your third part, its a 40% chance of repetitions; inverting the d100 dices was an elegant suggestion from one of my Players.
Or even, just letting repeats happen. If you want to keep two torsos, fly high.
Another problem was the full attribute vs total; a lot of 1s were rolled, meaning the difference between full Attribute and current - which ideally should be a bigger number - ended up barely hurt. Players can use a single scrap to go full.
Nonsense. Current Attribute should probably be the two lower, not higher.
On the actual Parts, a lot of Other parts rollled created an interesting group: a heroism generator, a emotion emulator and a storyteller module in three of the four characters created an emergent angle
A group of Robots of some influence, or in the least, of greater purpose.
THE PARTY.
Helios - from a radical branch of the Long Vigil that believes the Departed must be followed to the stars; that is the real final test.
Main Part: Hydraulic Press Torso
Kronk - a preaching Robotarian: the true beauty and most important thing in the Rock are each and every Robot life.
Main Part: Projector Box Torso
Odicell - Pragmatist, betrayed by their former Party, was they were the chosen to be Phaged in a dire situation. Escaped, but now fend for themselves.
Main Part: Shocking hand arm
L1Z3 - an open Phager. Brutal and decisive uses of Heroism Generator to not back down in the hard moments.
Main Part: Projectile Deflector arm
THE CRAWL.
Players started out assessing the first valve and cryoblast as too bothersome to mess with just to phage the frozen robot stuck, so they went straight down to the observation room.
Immediately Kronk closes the first valve, discovering the Blind Abyssal when it threw a rock in their face.
Ironically, L1Z3 Projectile Deflector Arm was an amazing pull: by succeeding a Save, she intercepted the rock, and decide to even throw it back into it.
They quickly realize the conundrum about the valves, the blindness of the Abyssal, and the complication on keeping quiet.
They still resist to drop down into the Abyssal's level and domain, and decide to go all the way back up and into the Debris Room; they figure out the need to use the valve pressure to power up the excavation belt, and again ignore the scrap stuck in the mountain of rocks.
At this point, I found it important to highlight: they were not limited to whatever they saw written on their sheets.
We have been playing Daggerheart for some time now, and they got used to the codified nature of their paths and possible decisions. A situation arises? Let me see my cards and one of my many abilities to see how to respond.
That was as important as it was effective. They started really looking at the environment around them, pushing cables, looking for buttons to press, and human relics to take.
They devise their first plan; close the valve above, see if anything changes in the observation room and the debris room.
With some use of the hydraulic press to make some reinforced plates and some teamwork, they manage to close the first valve, realizing now the other had a mechanism missing to lock it steady.
In the meantime, L1Z3 decides to let the frozen robot in the entrance thaw a little before phaging, taking them back to the debris room as everyone moved down into the cavern proper.
INTERMISSION
So, what is working at this point?
- The Parts are amazing Complex Judgements, giving the Robots unique abilities that wouldn't be doable otherwise.
- The problems are well presented, and the Five Level Structure for the burrow has set that up well.
- All Players are allowing the flavor from the lore and world to mold and flourish their actions and ideas.
What, in the other hand, is not working?
- Because the Players are rolling incredibly well, the Condition Dice have not seen much use at all - Kronk, with a Mind of 4/5, succeeded on 3 Saves in a row with that Attribute. Not a problem inherently, but a bummer on a Playtest.
- No attempts had been made until this point for any of the optional Scrap. There was no way for the Players to desire and to measure and understand the weight of a single scrap by starting out in front of the Burrow instead of the settlement.
Overall, even with a majority of Parts quite better suited to social interactions and not spelunking, the scavengers are making do with their ideas and growing into their metal plates.
THE CAVERN.
Players immediately recognize the Abyssal is imitating the loose hose, which enhances their already hilarious perception of it to new heights.
They decide to use the strong cryo jet to freeze the Abyssal, a great idea!
After a clunky execution, they succeed at aiming and directing it. Now frozen and not broken into bits, L1Z3 quickly moved to phage it, extracting a functional Body Part.
At this moment, I felt a Part was a nice reward for defeating it while not breaking it down so I didn't roll in the loot table - what can I say, kill the damn authors - so I chose one that made sense for the Abyssal: the Anchoring Hooks Leg.
At the same time, zero Scrap felt like a bad deal. So I rolled a D4 and they got a whopping 1, which Odicell pocketed discreetly.
THE CONFLICT.
At this moment, distrust was brewing between the Bots, and I made sure to fuel that fire: you are all surviving together, but one scrap fixes one Bot only.
L1Z3, using her Heroism Generator, broke into the smashed shortcircuited Bot and found two Scrap, hoarding it for themselves.
And well, could you blame them? With their Projective Deflector arm, the others were - to their face - calling L1Z3 their shield. One mistake and they would be the one getting hurt! It was only fair.
Kronk and Helios moved down to the other side of the cave, found the human tools and the last valve, and with some minimal coordination, closed down all valves, fixing the conveyor belt.
THE DREAM.
Odicell is the first one down the scary hole between excavating claws, and was met with the night sky rock and the mannequin.
Both got them quite puzzled, which is the best reaction to the final room of the burrow I could hear; it meant theie interest were captured for what could possibly explain that weirdness.
What in the world is this? Are these stars a map of the outside? What is this mannequin? Is it human formed, or robot? Would we even be able to tell the difference?
CLOSURE.
The remnant scrap from the pile in the debris room was taken, causing a lot of damage to poor Kronk.
The thawed Bot was nowhere to be seen, only his frozen fingers remaining in the burrow, stuck to the original valve in the entrance; a fun NPC for them to find in the road ahead.
The Party divides the treasure fairly, with a rowdy discussion on merits before settling on equal shares. I could see L1Z3 thinking risking themselves more than others was not smart, so maybe next time they won't take the metalshield treatment as well.
The game ends before any node from the pointcrawl can be presented.
Next game, using the map and visiting settlements and maybe an anomaly will be the focus, with some extra burrows to prep.
END.