Mission (The Werewolf of Hambridge Farms - Conquest Mission, Difficulty 4): For the first mission in the co-operative campaign I chose to help Green Vale with their werewolf problem. One of the easiest openings in WotA is to go after North Oaks, since the difficulty is only 3. But the food located in Green Vale makes it more attractive. I created some initial playtest rules to handle complications and invokes without an Autarch player, as well as rules to handle how the werewolf would move and attack.
Heroes taken on mission: Adula "Tracker of the Gray Wastes", Cyra "Alchemist of House Amber", Keel "Hobilar of the Amber Hand"
Although it's possible to play with only two characters, it's fairly difficult, so for this playtest Jennifer took on the roles of Cyra and Adula, while I played Keel. The spotlight player was Adula. This mission revolved around the young Cyra's growing realization that the world was much broader than her rather narrow form of schooling would lead to believe her. Adula was selected as the spotlight character since she knew more about the smaller farms and establishments surrounding Red Bank.
We talked for a while about how Red Bank is perceived in the world. There's a rift between the smaller hamlets and farms and the large technological hub within the capital. Cyra has been insulated inside this academic hub, studying magic and science and new forms of government. Keel comes from a time before this rapid progress. Keel is the classic veteran of many wars, coming as he did from the brutality of the Amber Hand. The tension between them was a big part of the mission. Somewhere in the center was the practical Adula, balancing both of their personalities with the need to finish the job at hand.
Build Developments: Rough rolling to start the campaign! But Red Haven finished work on Great Channeling. Which could come in handy given the number of spellcasters in Red Bank. Hopefully a Mana Forge is possible to build in the not too distant future.
Challenge Phase: The heroes made it to Hambridge Farms, the large agricultural center within the Green Vale. Hambridge Farms is run by Mila. The people of the farms have made token sacrifices to the werewolf as a way to appease it from making even worse attacks.
Challenge Scene: Over Hill and Under Hill - Diff 2, 2 Suns, 3 Moons, Survival / Thievery: Adula and Keel were in the first scene together. The card draw triggered a complication (suns higher than moons), which netted Adula another fate point, but made the scene more difficult by adding moons. As an initial way to handle complications in Autotarch, they occur whenever the suns are higher than moons. Adula charged ahead through cliffs and underbrush, ignoring demands for sleep and rest. The hunt took its toll on Adula and Keel. But they narrowed down how the werewolf moved about the farms.
Advantage Scene: Wolfsbane: Cyra took the opportunity to research Wolfsbane while Keel and Adula were out and about. She was successful, creating the Wolfsbane Oil mission aspect.
Challenge Scene: Animal Movement Patterns - Diff 1, 3 Suns, Survival / Thievery: With some research, Cyra ended up using the history of animal movement patterns to find holes in where they were located. Rather than wait for Adula and Keel, she charged off into the woods on her own to confirm her hypothesis. What she learned is that the woods are unforgiving, gaining the "Rocks Are Not Beds" consequence from gaining too much stress.
Challenge Scene: Amber Hand Raiders - Diff 7, 1 Sun, 2 Moons, Fighting / Marksmanship: Adula and Keel had drifted rather far away from Green Vale when Keel heard a familiar sound - the whistle of an attacking Amber Hand raiding party. The Amber Hand had never forgiven Keel for defecting and throwing his support in with Red Bank. Red Bank founders had used the Hand to secure territory and alliance, but then cut ties with them. Keel struggled with his feelings toward the Hand, but ultimately decided that they were not the path toward a brighter future. Many in the Amber Hand took this move as a betrayal, and Keel was now a wanted man.
The attackers were young, which gave Adula and Keel an advantage. Keel reacted quickly, dropping a sniper hidden in the trees and given Adula time to react. Adula bull rushed in - smashing one of the attackers and summarily dispatching another. The final few ran off. This would come back to bite the heros when threats were determined.
Advantage Scene: Angry Townsfolk: Jennifer decided to make a tactical choice by using a hindering aspect on one of Cyra's skills while she was creating advantage. This would almost certainly result in failure (and it did), but it gave Cyra two advances in Command. Coupled with the free one at the end of missions, this would be enough to raise Cyra's Command skill up.
Cyra decided to dismiss the folk wisdom of the local townsfolk in making her plans to deal with the werewolf. It was a city slicker vs. country bumpkin moment. In this case, the country bumpkins were onto something. Cyra decided to mess with the offerings to the werewolf, deciding they were of no benefit. Instead, this enraged the werewolf, causing it to attack in town. The Autotarch got the Endangered Farmers mission aspect with two free invokes. The farmers were going to be in the way during the final battle!
Conflict Phase (Skirmish): The werewolf could sense Cyra's weakness and stalked her relentlessly. Keel and Adula did a good job taking advantage of its aggressiveness, picking out openings and making it pay. Cyra also nailed it with a fairly potent fireball.
However, the werewolf took a pound of flash, pinning Cyra up against a wall and slashing her up. It was only the last second heroics of Adula that saved her. But Cyra still ended the mission with multiple consequences, both physical and stemming from her shaken confidence.
Mission Status: Success! Red Bank added Green Vale.
Stability: Stronghold: +0
Ally Disposition: Burgan Vale +2, Crescent Hold +0, Gravewood -1, Lily Manor +3, Sunriders +2
Stronghold Developments:
Great Channeling
Regional Income:
Red Bank (Capital): 1 food, 2 timber, 2 mana
Echo Lake: 2 ore
Tarrydale Farms: 2 food
Green Vale: 1 food, 1 ore
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Total: 4 food, 3 timber, 4 ore, 2 mana, 1 luxury
Schemes: None
Scheme Pool
These are special dice pools used for the solo version of WotA.
Diplomacy Schemes: 1
Infiltration Schemes: 1
Skirmish Schemes: 1
Warfare Schemes: 1
Region Threats: Echo Lake regional threat, Skirmish difficulty 5. Attack of the Amber Hand raiders! We decided this threat would be the Amber Hand raiders coming back for more. Maybe they'll be recurring villains in this campaign?
Faction Threats: None
Rules Musings: Lots of stuff.
The Werewolf:
Overall, I think this session went pretty well. The werewolf was actually pretty fun. I created a chart to handle its behavior. The symbols on the Deck of Fate cards were used to determine the action type, while the value was its result (usually its result on the fighting check, possibly with a bonus based on the chart).
Kind of like:
...
Eclipse - Lycanthropy, move 4 and infect with lycanthropy (this was a special effect that basically gave the hero a really long term consequence)
3 Moons - Whirlwind Attack, move 5 toward zone with most characters, attack all with Fighting +2
2 Moons - Heightened Senses, move 5 toward character with lowest Athletics, attack with Fighting +1
1 Moon - Quick Attack, move 4 toward character with most physical stress, attack with Fighting
1 Sun - Powerful Attack, move 1 toward character with most physical stress, attack with Fighting +2
...
That sort of thing. If there were multiple symbols on a card (like 2 moons and 1 sun), the werewolf would do both, starting with the moons action. I have different "archetypes" for enemies, like tank, sneak, striker, that sort of thing. This fight went well. In fact, movement played a bigger role in this fight because the werewolf AI doesn't always do the optimal thing, which actually can make positioning matter a little more. It isn't easy to craft those charts, though, there's quite a bit of possibility to have really weird or boring interactions.
This kind of approach might be trickier with lots of minions. It might be one card draw determines the behavior of all of them at once. Drawing one card for every minion sounds like a pain.
Defense or Offense:
I kind of like the idea that the Autotarch never makes checks (the AI doesn't draw cards). So, on defense the werewolf will just have a target number. Drawing one card for the attack and one for defense is kind of a pain. With multiple players, drawing a card makes you feel like you have some agency. With one player, it's just extra fiddliness. And really, with the fate distribution, the only thing really happening is a pushing out of that bell curve. It makes it so that results like +6 or +7 are possible, since both cards are added.
Jenn didn't like the idea of drawing a card for the hero's defense, though. Since the werewolf wouldn't draw one for defense. I think it might be useful, though, because a card draw is a signifier to invoke aspects, etc. I don't think it's a big deal either way, but it could be when there are multiple opponents.
Invokes:
The Autotarch fate point spends didn't really work, though. I had this "trigger" thing where the Autotarch spends fate points in certain conditions. But the sequencing was hard to remember and untangle. I was hoping the AI wouldn't have to do invokes at all, but there's just too much in WotA that needs that ability. And one of my design goals is to keep as much the same on the player side as possible. I don't want to change how skills, stunts, core actions, developments, etc, work if I can help it.
So I'll have to do something a little more "dumb" but easy to remember. Like enemies invoke one aspect on their action during the conflict any time one is available, regardless. At least then they'll all get used, and it will be much easier to untangle and remember. Granted, there's always the chance an opponent does it at a really weird time that doesn't make sense. But the tables are much harder than the human controlled opponents, so that's how I'll balance it, I think.
Complications:
I also created an easy way to handle complications (any time the suns are higher than a moon when creating a scene). That worked well, I think, but there's some sequencing weirdness. A player creates a scene, draws a card, then when do players commit vs. when is there a complication? I think it works a little better if other heroes commit to the scene before the complication is determined. That makes it harder for the players, but I think it's a little bit better of a narrative flow. Again, not a big deal, but these are the sorts of rough edges that Autarch players usually handle which I didn't think about with Autotarch rules.
Standing in front of the formless spawn of ancient magical energy took a tremendous toll on Adula. The creature focused a kind of cosmic blight upon her weak mortal consciousness. It was too much - Adula collapsed into the pool of muck, completely enervated. At the moment the beast was about to consumer her, Cyra managed to drain all of her magical reserves into one potent blast which roasted the thing. The magical backlash from casting such a powerful spell was almost more than Cyra could handle.
