Attending

M.A. and E.A. were watching a movie, but T.A. (as always) was eager to play, and as we were getting started C.A., who had heard us talking about gaming earlier and said he wanted to play, wandered in and wanted to join in, so I had him roll up a character too.

• T.K.B. — GamesMaster.
• T.A. played Ezarik (e-ZAR-ik) — SKILL 8, STAMINA 17, LUCK 10.
• C.A. played Oswald — SKILL 10, STAMINA 21, LUCK 12, who was already lost in the treasure vaults in the dark.

Actual Play

T.A. had rolled up his character and was speaking with Shaggradd when C.A. showed up. I decided that Ezarik would meet C.A.'s character, Oswald, down in the treasure vaults, where he'd been sitting in the dark after his candle burned out after he‘d run from a monster. So we rolled up a character, who turned out to be skilled, strong, and lucky, named him Oswald, and went back to Ezarik.

Shaggradd blindfolded Ezarik, lead him around by hand, spun him around in a circle, told him to hunker down, and pushed him into a low tunnel. After he refused the 2% extra on the 10% entrance fee for her to cast a Reverse Teleport on him, she pulled off the blindfold and pushed him further in, and slammed a door on him. After he lit his lantern, he could see that he was in small tunnel with rotting wood sides, that opened out into a taller and slightly larger roughly circular room. The floor of the tunnel and the room were both dirt, and in the cent of the room was a pit trailing down into blackness, with a rope tied to a black spike hammered into the rotting wall of the chamber, covered with spider webs.

Descending the rope he ended up in a 1, small chamber dug into the earth, with four exits at right angles. He took the exit to the west, leading to 30, a large cavern with a skull carved into the east all, with three tunnels leading out through missing teeth in the skull. He headed out the middle passage, and after a little while heard the sound of a stream, but couldn't see it. [2] A little further on he found a little man, about a metre tall and dressed in what appeared to be the entire skin of a small dragon[3], wings and tail included, cleverly formed so that the rear feet were boots, the fore feet were gauntlets, and the head was a helmet, with the face appearing through the mouth of the beast, sitting next to a puddle of wax that was all that left of his candle. This was Oswald, a hobbit, and as it turned out he was very hungry. He had lost his way while being chased by a monster, and then his candled had burned out, leaving him waiting in the dark, as he hand not taken advantage of Shaggradd's offer of a Reverse Teleport either.

Continued on to 35. Pulled lever. Could see just a bit by the light of a phosphorescent plant growing on the surface of the cavern. Not knowing where they were they headed out the only entrance they say, and back to 30, where they recognized the skill. This time they took the right (north) passage to 31, and started to enter the middle passage there, but a troll popped out of the passage and attacked them. After exchanging a few blows with the troll and getting a small cut on one cheek, Oswald fled, leaving behind his companion and his companion's lantern! Ezarik stayed behind and fought the troll for another round, and then pursued his companion, and luckily the troll did not follow.

Meanwhile, Oswald ran back down the passage to 30, bounced off the wall and ran through the passage to 1 and straight across and out the passage that lead to the collapsing stairs, slide down the stairs, stumbled across the gravel beach, through the water, and finally sat down on the ground beyond the stream in 19, in the dark again. He could smell some delicious fruit nearby….

Ezarik, fleeing the troll, guessed at the likely route Oswald had taken and quickly found him, sliding down the collapsing stairs into 19 and wrenching his arm in his fall. Glad to be reunited, Oswald drinks some water from the stream while Ezarik eats some of his provisions. The smell of delicious fruit was coming from some large green fruits on a strange underground tree. After they rested a few minutes they continue exploring, taking the passage east until it forked and then taking the north-east slanting passage until it ended in a dead end, 20. Returning to the fork in the passage, they entered a very hot room half filled with burning coals, 21, where a fiery lizard squeaked at them. Oswald squeaked back, but the lizard was puzzled. They left that room through another door, where they discovered a tall red-headed man sleeping (22). Unfortunately, he woke up and was very angry, demanding that they leave immediately. They went back through the door to 21, Oswald apologizing to the man for waking him up, and the man calming down and going back to bed. Then they returned to the cavern with the stream, where Oswald climbed up into the tree and started to pick a fruit, noticing a key in the tree as he did so. Unfortunately, just at that moment, five of the fruit hatched into large angry goose-like red birds, and began attacking. Oswald fled east into the passageway, as did Ezarik, though he tried and failed to grab the key as a fled.

And this is where we ended for the evening.

Over the course of the evening we learned that Oswald's dragon armor and dragon tooth sword were not family heirlooms, that he could play both the piano and the flute, and that he had lost a wand and a map earlier in the these caverns.

Reflections

The simplicity of FF:TIRpG makes it a great pickup game. There are only three stats, SKILL, STAMINA, an LUCK, so rolling up a character is trivial, which is great for when somebody unexpected shows up in the middle of things and wants to play — say, for example, a three-year-old, C.A. And the rules are so simple that after you have played a few times you can easily remember them, so you don't even need to have your rule book handy.

Playing with a three year old has a few pitfalls. C.A. has a great vocabulary, and uses pretty complicated sentences, but his pronunciation is somewhat unclear, adding to our communication difficulties. He's not familiar with the fantasy genre, so doesn't know that there are no flashlights or cars or technology. And he hasn't quit figured out that once his character is in a situation, he has to deal with the situation using only the resources he has at hand already and what's available in the situation.

On the other hand, he's also a lot of fun to play with. He comes up with lots of interesting details about his character, he tries interesting things, he has fun seeing what's going to happen next.

T.A. liked the game, though it was not his favorite. (I think he's well used to more detailed systems, and prefers them to something this simple.)

Attending

Clockwise, starting with the Dungeon Master

• T.K.B. — Dungeon Master
• L.B. —
  • Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
  • Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman (E.A. was away, so L.B. played Emma Lee.)
• T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as a street urchin
• M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman

Play

To room #1, kill 7 rats, look around, to room #2, 7 goblins wander in, Zoric to #1 and falls on his back, breaking 5 of the 10 oil flasks in his backpack. Elric cuts him out of his backpack, pulls him back, and sets the oil ablaze with his torch. Goblins have to fight around flame, only 2 at a time, and are defeated eventually, leaving the party to struggle back to town for four more days of rest. They head back to the dungeon, to room #7 via room #1. On to room #8, room #11, room #9, room #10a, room #11. Emma Lee and Elric are down and unconscious, but Zoric turns the skeletons. Back to town. They rest three days and go shopping on the next day. The chain mail they found is a relic of the Old Kingdom.

Attending

Clockwise, starting with the Dungeon Master

• T.K.B. — Dungeon Master
• L.B. —
  • Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
  • Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman (E.A. was away, so L.B. played Emma Lee.)
• M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman
• T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as a street urchin

Play

Stairwell smelled of oil (Elric & Zoric made their saves). Elric threw his torch down the stairs, got a 20, and the torch bounced down around the stairs setting the oil and timber the goblins had filled the stairs with on fire. The heat and fire collapsed the hole leading down to the stairs. After searching around some more, Emma Lee found a trail leading to the cave entrance that lead to room #1. Gloriana killed the giant ferret. They make a plan to deal with the rat nest they know is in room #2: Emma Lee and Gloriana will stand at the east side of room #1 with bows ready while Elric and Zoric go into room #2 to throw oil at the rats and light it. Zoric's oil flask bounces off the back of an attacking rat & did not break. Rats wounded Zoric and he fell unconscious, and 5 of his 7 remaining oil flasks broke between his plate armor and the stone floor. Elric grabbed Zoric and started dragging him back and threw the torch, their only light, onto the pool of oil, setting it ablaze, and thereby catching the 3 rats attacking them on fire. This maddened the rates and they charged after Elric and brought him down. Emma Lee and Gloriana loose arrows, but Emma Lee's bowstring breaks. Gloriana kills the last rat by the dim light of the burning oil pool around the corner and the weakened sunlight filtering through the dense thicket and down the entrance tunnel. Zoric and Elric are both unconscious but alive. Back to town for four more days of recuperation.

Attending

Clockwise, starting with the Dungeon Master

• T.K.B. — Dungeon Master
• L.B. — Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
• M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman
• T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as a street urchin
• E.A. — Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman

Play

Started in room #6. To room #7, to room #1, to room #2. Rats attack Elric & Gloriana, a few rounds later the ferrets from #3 join in, attacking Zoric & Emma Lee, who end up unconscious. Gloriana throws bacon over ferrets, who run after it and eat. Elric and Gloriana pick up their friends and flee back north, but ferrets run around and trap them in the narrow corridors. Gloriana killed one behind, which blocked tunnel, while Elric fell against the other. Gloriana sacrificed her shield and helmet to turn 2 death blows and finally killed the 2nd ferret. Gloriana again was the only PC left standing, and she dragged the other PCs back to room #6. While pulling the last PC back to room #6 she ran into a wandering monster, a hobgoblin, which she killed. They stayed in the locked room, slowly healing up, and left the dungeon on the evening of day 4, and arrived back in town before dawn on day 5. They healed up and went shopping.

Total loot: 131 gp 1 ep each.

Elric left Zoric's lantern burning in the rat's passage, but Gloriana bought a new one for Zoric.

Attending

Clockwise, starting with the Dungeon Master

• T.K.B. — Dungeon Master
• E.A. — Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
• L.B. — Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
• M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman
• T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as a street urchin

Character Generation

I decided we'd use Alex Schroeder's Character Generation Shortcuts (which covered Fighters, Clerics, and Wizards) and More Character Generation Shortcuts (which covered Elves, Dwarves, and Halfings) charts to create characters. This sped up character generation, but it also gave the characters customized classes, past experience, character qualities, and background qualities and events from the characters' early years and recent past, and their standard equipment. For example, one of the PCs was Elf, a superstitious student of ancient lore who was originally a street urchin and who had recently committed a shameful deed and had to flee town.

He had a PDF of the former, and I made a quick PDF of the later so I could have a printout for the character generation session.

(Alex later posted a revised PDF with more demihuman backgrounds and a starting spell for the wizard and elf backgrounds.)

I think the subclass approach he used is a great idea - it adds a lot of flavor, without needing any additional rules.

I also decided to use the background as a skill substitute. If the character needed to do something that was covered by their background (for example, a woodsman could track) they could either just do it, or if it was difficult they could make a saving throw, possibly with a bonus.

Anyway, we rolled up characters using Alex's tables and 3d6 for attributes, arranged to taste. I let them have max hitpoints for 1st level, and I decided that cleric spells would start at first level (in S&W Whitebox, like Original D&D and Basic D&D, clerics get their first spell at 2nd level) because the kids tend to rush into things with out thinking them out, so they'd need cure light wounds. I also let them buy some extra equipment beyond what was in Alex's tables.

The kids all really enjoyed the customized classes and the background elements from Alex's tables.

Play

I decided that a merchant wagon train had been attacked by goblins and the merchant had been kidnapped. One of the ox drivers had survived and stumbled into the a nearby town with the stories. The PCs decided to try and rescue him in hopes of a reward. They found the trail of the goblins, and it lead them to a hill topped with ruins. In the ruins they found a hole under a leaning, partially collapsed wall that lead to the steps that lead down to room #4 of Dyson's Delve.

They killed one of the goblins guarding the entrance stairs, but the other goblin got away, alerting the goblins in room #5. The PCs paused briefly to loot the dead goblin, but then ran after the other goblin, into room #5, where they were ambushed by the alerted goblins. Battle raged around the room, and when the boss from room #6 joined in things looked bleak for a while, but they killed off the goblins with only Gloriana still standing. Gloriana dragged everybody to room #6 and locked the door, and there they stayed for a couple of days until people were healed up a bit. They then went to explore more, even though several of them were hurt quite badly. They went back to room #4, and spent some time arguing, until they were attacked by giant rats. After that they spent more time in room #6.