Troika! x Barkeep on Borderlands sesh 6 GM Commentary
We play Barkeep on Borderlands with Troika! Characters are Witch (ancient undead parchment witch), Assassin (journeyman of guild of sharp corners) and Necromancer (just that). Check pregame and part one and two and three and four or even five
I forgot to publish it a three weeks ago and here we are. I also found that these session report posts are, as it was before, very unpopular. And if no one is willing to read them I don't feel the need to translate them. But maybe I can twist the concept a little to serve me better.
We also had a one week break due to some issues on one player side and then another due to scheduled event on my side. But we are back in the game (but events from this report happened before the break). I decided to change the formula a little because I was bored.
Off-Central Perks...
We finally started the barkeep procedure. Quite late to be honest, not only we spent 5 sessions on some pre-adventure stuff but also the procedure - by which I mean the Rave Time - starts at 18:00. And as we ended up other shenanigans in the Royal Academy which is in the City Wood area of the game - directly where the search for an Antidote should start. Also at some point in the underground my players got a giant's toenail which is one of four ingredients for the Antidote so they could seek another one - unicorn blood - and had a lot of unlabeled potions they should get identified. Perfect storm to potentially finish the adventure on a first day.
Nope, players aren't like that. I decided that moving from Academy to Off-Central Park took 1 turn and rolled setback. I rolled an academy student that immediately gave PCs a quest - to find an animal in order for him to make it a familiar. And that is very thoughtful part in Barkeep on the Borderlands, where you probably won't have enough money for partying and will require taking some jobs and doing shit to earn it. PCs will take those weird opportunities to make even a little money because drinking and eating during the Raves is expensive. And they did immediately try to catch random rat under a random food vendor's cart.
Off-Central Park as a location is kind of weird. The main gimmick of it is that you move on a board-game-like-board in order to make it to other locations probably quicker than on a regular map. We didn't do that and location felt quite boring so I had to improvise stuff. Illustrations help with it.
So PCs bought themselves cheapest beer and started speaking with vendors and looking around. Witch spotted a growlyhoot which would make awesome familiar. I asked the team how are they going to catch it. And their plan was to let undead basilisk to hypnotize it, which didn't happen. It flew away into the forest and the group went after it.
The moment I described the forest getting darker and more wild than the park just a few steps away one of the players got really careful. Although they did know they may meet a unicorn there they got scared. Growlyhoot sat on a boulder under which two moose (mooses? meese?) slept. Of course chaos ensued until some lucky strike from Assassin basically saved Necromancer from being trampled. And they caught growlyhoot.
...And Recreations
PCs gave the animal to the student who paid them a lot but also (I rolled another setback) he asked them if they could take care of his friend, Adventurer, whose date stood him up and he is looking for love. From the moment they met him I portrayed him as annoying nuisance.
The team got back to the park and asked what is happening there. I didn't have any idea - the location is kinda boring in itself - so I made up a swimming competition with gambling elements. Assassin said he'll participate - for money - and said to Witch she shouldn't gamble. He decided on losing and taking conciliation prize - two shillings. But in the meantime - because the rest of the group was bored - I rolled secretly for a setback and found a group of rats stealing stuff. So as Assassin was in the water trying not to drown (because the water was spiked with rum) he's teammates were bonking themselves in their heads trying to shoo away six rats from his belongings he left on the shore. Basilisk did most of the work.
Of course the grind continues so the team found a way to make money of the rats basilisk hunted. Then they met Park Ranger looking for a bear from Citywood who stole someone's picnic basket. He emphasized there are sometimes unicorns in the park. And also during their talk he pointed to the Granny's Cottage where titular Granny could identify their potions.
So the team decided to bail on it all and go to another pub. Cool decision, bros. We're going to play this game for the next year with this tempo ; (
General Comments
So the previous sessions were mostly an improvisation in dungeon crawling and players settling on their goals and paths to reach them. They seem to be actually not that engaged in the MacGuffin search because they feel they already achieved something - Witch and Necromancer have been promised enrollment into the Academy which will let them access the library and potentially find their way back into Crystal Spheres. But fortunately they engage with the adventure regardless.
I must admit I'm not entirely settled on the adventure and procedure. I like the framework but I must constantly remind myself that random tables are not set in stone and that I need to bring more of my own ideas into the game because tables won't make the game for me and there is not much more of material beside them. My eternal struggle with OSRish content.
Thankfully I saw this at the beginning. Off-Central Park is somewhat dull without the big events happening in the background like in other pubs. Next ones will definitely be more lively.