Session 11; started from October 23rd to 25th of October 2023.
A new party and another likely group to die here. By random selection I got two party members for this group and here they are.
‘Reformed’ Joe Butler 2 Hp. (Thief, 1st Level) Alertness, Mapping.
Gentlemen Dandy of Al-Emon 1 Hp. (Mage, 1st Level) Beast Friendship, Contemplation, Navigation.
The plan with this pair is simple; map territory, take few risks and gain experience without ‘useless hangers on.’
Thus the pair set out and begin exploring the plains immediately to the south of Punishment. There are (by random roll) 5 dynamic lairs that must be clear/taken/pacified for immigrants to begin flooding in and trying to settle this potentially high value real estate. All encounters from this group plan to take place with a 50% chance of finding a lair.
(A Gab 'It's Free Real Estate Meme')
By the power of being a self taught Mage of the 1st Level, Al-Emon rolls a Nat 20 on getting lost. This bodes well. The party begins their patrolling. They begin methodically mapping every foot of territory while Joe writes it out. In the morning they go through the parts nearest the town confirming that nothing is actually camping on the outskirts of Punishment to the south. And in the evening they continue. To some annoyance they spend the night on iron rations and begin the work on the next day as well. (With a +4 they almost fail navigation, but the Dandy is too good for such tricks of nature). This hubris is punished. 120 yards from their position is an ice salamander. However, it fails its surprise roll and the pair sneak away from the cool lizard.
They search another area, but find nothing and spend another night. In the morning they run across 3 basilisks. Neither side is surprised and the basilisks begin moving to attack.
(Some few hours later.)
I lost the will to play out this fight and mark the characters down as dead, somewhat dispirited. This is obviously not exemplary behavior, especially for the dedicated soloist, but it does tie in to the already planned update.
Update.
Corosicalta, due to early errors on my part, is immensely dangerous for 1st level PCs, far more so than the game intends. This is due to errors entirely of my own inflicting and makes the place the equivalent to a deep Chaos incursion into a very tight and comparatively low value location. I am not intending to abandon the area. The Legate’s absurd goals will still be reached for.
However, I will not be inflicting this on other players. Having experienced a bad version of it myself and my own recording finds it unconscionable to continue to put other people (the players) into this situation.
Future non-solo sessions will be conducted in a more correctly scaled and balanced ACKs realm, furtherer south (alternate North Africa) and with a more studied approach to progression.
Further Reflections.
This was in a number of the ways the worst session I have had, though it is entirely my own fault. Such are the joys of Solo gamers; rejoicing in the joint role of player, judge and executioner.
I recently read a book that shook me up quite a bit due to the repeated errors from the Allied Army officers and doctrine in the Second World War. One of the shocking elements was how little Allied staff did adequate self criticism for casualties. This change of tack is somewhat a response to reading that.
This is not to say that the '1st level characters are free' mindset is immoral or without use. It has (generally) been really fun. But someone aiming for #elitegaming cannot stop there.
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