This year, I had originally planned to run a Kill Team weekend campaign - along the lines of the Shadow War: Armageddon campaign I'd run last year... except with more of a narrative to the campaign, possibly with some custom scenarios written to carry the narrative forward... then Wrath & Glory happened... and I got this daft idea in my head that I'd try and run the Dark Tides adventures over a weekend for the same group of friends that had originally been planning to attend the Kill Team weekend.
Originally I'd planned to run all five adventures. This was a bit ambitious, I realized even then... but I haven't really played it and didn't get how fast it could play. I mean I ran Blessings Unheralded for one group and it took Two evening-long sessions... I ran if for a second group... and they blasted through the whole thing in just a couple hours!?
The Dark Tides book is interesting. It seems like more of a "series of linked adventures" than a "Campaign" per se... Each of the first four adventures are written to be played with imperial characters, each at different Tiers - and the fifth and final adventure requires the players use Eldar characters....? I felt the general idea was to run it as a series of one-shot adventures with players making a new character for each game - each at a different tier - giving all involved the opportunity to try out playing/running games at the different tiers - with the different sorts of character archetypes available at the different tiers.
(The game, Wrath and Glory is tiers to be played at "tiers" or power levels. Tier one archtypes are Imperial guard and ministorum priests and Inquisitional Acolytes. Tier three archetypes include Tactical Space Marines and Tech Priests. Tier Four are Inquisitors and Primaris Intercessors. The idea being that the sorts of foes that a Space marine can go toe-to-toe with, would utterly obliterate imperial guardsmen before they even got a shot off. So you can play at the power level of your choosing. Not that you are limited to playing ONLY the archetypes available at the campaigns Tier - archetypes available at lower Tiers can be "ascended"- mostly by giving them more build points, making them bad-ass veteran versions of their particular archetype - roughly equal to others of the Tier ascended to... Now "tier" is just supposed to be something you set out at the beginning of a campaign... It's not like a Tier One character ever levels up and suddenly BECOMES a Tier Two character. Sure by gaining experience through play a character might eventually - over a long period of campaigning - end up with as many build points as a character starting at a higher tier... but that doesn't mean they are suddenly now of that "tier"....)
But when I got reading the adventures there were passages that made me think that it was assumed some of the characters playing the later adventures MIGHT be the same characters that played the earlier ones...?! How the heck is that supposed to happen with the adventures are - narratively-speaking - suppose to take place one after the other...?! Are they supposed to do a training montage and suddenly "level up" to the next "Tier"....?
I told the players that it would probably work out best if they all played different characters at the different tires - but told them that, if they REALLY wanted to the COULD just play an ascended version of the same character they played for the lower level adventures.
I did get a chance to run part of the first adventure the week before with another group. They got through the first two - of three - acts of the first adventure - and finished that around 11 am, after arriving around 7pm and still having to make a character for one of the players.
I realized it was probably going to be tight... so, to save time on character generation I tried to get most of the players to make characters BEFOREHAND!
Earlier in the week I had The Kids make up their characters...
As I read, and re-read the rules and adventures I started to realize we weren't likely going to get through all five. The first I was to mentally drop off was the Eldar one...
Also as I announced the change I expected one or two of those that originally committed to playing in the Kill Team campaign weekend might drop out - but rather the opposite happened. I had about six that I new were fully committed to the Kill Team campaign weekend, but when I changed it to Wrath & Glory I suddenly had nine... NINE! That'a a lot of people for a role-playing game. probably should have said "NOPE!" but some of the later committers are some of the better role-players I know... and I still expected some of them might bail at the last minute...
No one did...
Friday, 15 February 2019
In the morning I headed out to get some snacks and other foodstuffs to munch on throughout the weekend - it was still pretty cold, but not quite as cold as it had been the week before...
I had to go out to an appointment with Finnegan late afternoon and got him just after 5pm and Aaron was already waiting there. Shortly after we got in, Paul arrived (having driven from Winnipeg - 850km). They were the only two who didn't have any characters made, so I got them started on making some characters while cleaning the kitchen, baking pizzas, and preparing some of the other snax!
I think we got things under way around 8pm....?
I the end we had the following in the group:
John played Tryckn - Inquisitorial Adept
Amanda played Anesh - an Eldar Corsair (which went over really great...)
Finnegan played Jimmy the Hand - a Hive Ganger
Halston played Brother Koslev - a Ministorum Priest - who was secretly a 4th Generation Genestealer cultist.
Bruce Played Chewie - another Ganger from the same Hive World as Jimmy the Hand
Other Tim played Brother Morgan - a rather reluctant Ministorum Priest
Paul played Atiq - Imperial Guardsman from Tallarn
The Girl played Ravena - an Inquisitorial Acolyte who like to burn things - especially Heretics.
Aaron played Pte. O'Brien - another Imperial Guardsman
The Campaign takes place in the system of Gilead, in the Imperium Nihilus. Characters work for Rogue Trader Jakel Varonius, who braved the warp storms of the Great Rift to bring his fleet to Gilead. All of the adventures take place on the planet of Charybdion - in the capitol of Hive Aidon. The first adventure involves a number of murders among the upper hive elite and threatens to explode into an all out war between the noble houses. The characters are sent by Varonius to investigate the murders and make swift action to stop them and bring peace to the troubled hive!
I didn't take a lot of pictures - it was a lot just to keep all the balls in the air - NINE players is a lot to manage and not make it drag too much for anyone that isn't immediately in the action. It's also difficult to balance the encounters with a group that size - often they encounter would read like - there should be a mob of 5 for each of the player characters... well... If I were to do that, I'd have needed to throw FORTY-FIVE mooks into an encounter! That would have taken for-EVAR to play through!
I did take one picture of this spectacular roll that Other Tim made... I can't even remember what the hell he was rolling for... but he sure didn't pass!!! At least he didn't roll a one on the wrath die and end up with a complication on top of all that fail!
We decided to call it an evening just after midnight. They got to pretty much the same place the other group had by the end of Friday evening. The climactic event was when Amanda's Eldar character called upon her gods as she smiled one of the foes (completing an 'objective' and gaining her one point of wrath) - so impressed was Chewie by their ferocious action that he declared for the eldar gods when he made his attack (allowing him to use a campaign card - declaring faith in a new god and gaining some benefit) but then at the end of the action, Ravena, the inquisitorial Acolyte burned him alive for such blatant heresy (We knew Bruce wasn't going to be able to make it on Saturday, so it gave us a good, narrative explanation as to why he was no longer with the group...).
By the end of Friday I'd decided I'd probably drop adventure two... but I still hoped that we'd finish Adventure One Saturday morning and play through Adventure Three Saturday afternoon and evening, then get to play Adventure Four - which I was really looking forward to since I had spent some considerable time (and money!) acquiring and painting some minis specifically for this epic final adventure!!!
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Detritus left over from the evening before...
We made waffles in the morning and a few of the players joined us for breakfast. Got started a bit late...
The whole gang - Less Bruce, who wasn't available to play on Saturday.
Took us until just after 1pm to finish up the first Adventure. Everyone went out for lunch at Park Cafe - except me, I wasn't feeling all that hungry - still super full of waffle - and I wanted a chance to review the next adventure and get a few cards prepared...
After lunch we launched into Adventure Three (skipping Adventure Two), wherein the Characters are called upon by their patron - Rogue Trader Jakel Varonius to intervene in the succession troubles and determine which of the two heirs apparent would be the new governor of Charybdion.
For this adventure we had the following characters...
John still played Tryckn - Inquisitorial Adept - but ascended to Tier Three
Amanda played Sister Superior Sunyora of the Adepts Sororitas
Finnegan played Commissar Markus D'var
Halston played Brother Gaius Bathory - a dour Adeptus Ministorum Crusader
Other Tim played Jax Flypyng - an "ex-Imperial Navy, Independent contractor" (Desperado)
Paul played Brother Ambryel Texus - a Tactical Space Marine
The Girl played Irewyn - a Tech Priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus
Aaron played Chryspus Rhuyd - an ascended Sanctioned Psyker clanking around in ancient, failing power armour...
When everybody got back from lunch we got underway and played for 5-6 hours and then decided to call it a day and went for supper at güd - it was my first time eating there - I've been wanting to go forever, but it's kind of on the other side of town, so we just never got around to it...
Again, we didn't finish the adventure... we got maybe halfway through Act Two (of three)... I still has a faint glimmer that MAYBE we might get to finish Adventure Three in the morning/early afternoon and plough on through into the evening on Sunday to play out Adventure Four!!!
Sunday, 17 February 2019
That totally didn't happen though...
We finished off Adventure Three - bringing it to a pretty satisfactory conclusion. I kind of glossed over the first part of act three, and even ignored the entire last scene.... Everyone - including me - was kind of running out of steam.
I did remember to take a few more pictures....
Aaron, Paul, Amanda
I do like this system. Looking back I kind of wish I'd had a bit more experience with it before trying to run an entire weekend-long marathon/mini-campaign! Once I have a bit more experience with the system and get a better sense of what different levels/tiers and different types of can deal with, I'm hoping it will all run a little more smoothly. I would definitely do it again, but there are a lot of things I would definitely do differently.
Paul, Amanda
For one, I would do character creation together on Friday night. I would encourage players to work on character CONCEPTS before hand and have them bounce ideas off me and off each other via email or a group message through Facebook or whatever. But make the characters together - even if that takes the entire evening and we don't get to playing any adventures on Friday night.
Halsten, Aaron, Paul
Also, I would not try running a series of one-off adventures like this was set up for. One mini-campaign using the same characters - I think the players might have put more thought into their characters if they had only needed to make on, instead of four or five (two or three of which we never even got to play with!!!)
John, The Girl, Finnegan.
Wouldn't mind doing this more than once a year, too! Not sure if we'll be able to drag Paul out that often, but the local guys... Need to keep it under 6 players, though - which might mean the family doesn't play on the marathon game weekends - or I run separate game weekends just for them - maybe using the same adventure to test them out...?
I would still like to run a Kill Team campaign this year - whether it's an occasional narrative campaign I just play with the family - or somthing I organize with a larger group over a weekend... I'm not just sure yet... but I'd like to do SOMETHING!
I am going to continue to run the Dark Tides series of adventures for the group of guys I'd started running it for on Saturday evenings. Amanda and The Girl might even join in that group - at least to play the adventures we didn't get to this weekend.
When I'd originally sat down, I'd kind of intended to relay the narrative of the adventures they played through... but then... it kind of turned into this that you've just read... partly because I didn't want to let on any spoilers... partly because... well... once I got typing that suddenly seemed like a lot of work to narratively summarize over 20 hours of gaming and I'm really, REALLY tired... I guess if you really want to know what happened in the adventure, you can buy Dark Tides... Or maybe I'll post more narrative reports of the other groups adventures...
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
I hope to get working on the Reaver Battle Titan - as the Battle for the Abyss is less than two weeks away now!!