Crushed Earth Battle Report #1

Crushed Earth Battle Report #1
Pirate Campaign

Hey folks. This is the first in a series of role-playing reports from a campaign I just started. Were playing in a fantasy setting as a crew of pirates.

Were using the Crushed Earth rules system (found in the Download section). This is probably only the 5th game thats been run on the current iteration of the rules, which will be updated due to problems arising during game play.

First was character creation. Since I am the GM, I let the players (who's names will not be used to protect the innocent …unless of course they WANT me to use their names next time) make their characters from any of the fantasy races I have written up. Player 1 decided to go with an insectman (dragonfly) who could fly and had an extra set of limbs. First problem was that he put most of his points into attributes. Rule fix number 1: no more than 50 points may be spent on attributes. He also took a rather large height (67'). Rule fix number 2: for every 6 inches over 6 feet, it costs 1 point. OK, now his character fell more where I had hoped. He also took a series of positive and negative traits, the most important of which is Talisman. Talisman allows you to re-roll a single die in any given roll. I had no idea how much trouble this would cause me later … Anyway, the bugman is also a cleric type spell-caster. Were going to sit down later and decide what his god does and does not allow. For the moment, he has designed spells that make running a ship easier as both players decided to have experience as sailors/pirates previously. He did take a self defense spell as well. A quick gust of wind to take people off of their feet. Very useful.

On to Player 2 who made a human martial artist. Nothing that could make things too difficult for me. A man from the Chinese region of the world (in Crushed Earth, its not China any more!) who is a very well balanced character.

The two started the game with very little equipment or money, only Player 1 taking leather armour (which I forgot about during combat… silly me). They had previously checked out a room at the dockside inn and were waiting for another ship to pull into port so they could get on and get back to working. Looking around the docks, they found a poster. It said to meet there the next day at 1pm. A very large ship with a very reputable pirate was looking for new crew. One of their old shipmates came up to them asking if they knew anything about the guy which, naturally, they didn't. What their shipmate knew, though, is that this captain had a reputation of eating those that didn't do what he said. Of course, that's not too unusual for an orc. The pair decided since they had time to spare, they were going to get one last, good meal before shipping out and get plastered since the cast off time was late in the day. They found the nicest restaurant they could, ate, and ran into a group of pirates that asked them if they were going to get on the ship. They said yes. The group told them that all they knew about this captain was that not only did he eat folks who didn't do as they were told, he ate his last first mate! The players didn't seem to horribly phased by this, but decided to go get drunk as they had planned anyway. They didn't just look for a pub. They looked for the meanest place they possibly could and went inside. The place was packed. People continually flew out the windows after the odd crass remark and fights were breaking out everywhere. The two made their way to the bar, had a few drinks, threw a few insults, then turned to leave. On their way out, a group of thugs seemed not to appreciate the insults and the players ran outside. Player 1, the dragonfly-man, was the target of their rage and they quickly chased after him. He flew out of sight and followed them for awhile, with Player 2 following behind enjoying the taunting the thugs were receiving. After a short bit, Player 1 swooped down and cast a huge gust of wind that blew all the thugs into the air, spinning wildly and smacking into each other. After 5 rounds of this, they fell 20 feet to the ground, getting knocked cold. The pair of players laughed and taunted them before returning to the inn for the night.

Day 2 saw Player 1 waking up early to check out the docks and see what he could find out about the new ship and captain. Nothing seemed to be going on, but a large crowd was forming by the poster. He went back to wake Player 2, who was late getting up. He flew in through the window, woke him up and flew back to the dock. Player 2 quickly dressed and jumped out the window to avoid paying for the room. He passed his Acrobatics check quit handily. The two made their way back to the docks to find a massive crowd had formed. They were asked by a ragged guy if they were planning on coming aboard. They said yes and were shunted into a line that ended in a ring of people. They got to the front of the line and Player 1 was called. He didn't know for what yet, but figured it out quick enough as he and a large, troll-like man were pushed into the ring. They were told it was to be a fist fight only. No weapons. A bit worried, the bug-man rid himself of his weapons, throwing them into the ground for dramatic effect.

Player 1 won initiative, taking his first action, he took two swings at the troll. One with each set of fists, which meant he was using only half his Brawl skill per attack. Even so, because of his Talisman, even though he was only rolling a couple of dice per roll, he almost always hit. Every time a die was low, he could just re-roll it. Even if their was only 1 die in the first place. Smart move taking the Talisman. They went back and forth for a bit before the bug-man used his magic and blew the troll off his feet, knocking him out.

Player 2 was called into the ring against an average looking pirate. The pirate got first attack, but Player 2s Martial Arts skill easily outclassed him. It took only a few rounds for the pirate to fall to Player 2.

Player 1 then moved to his next round fight against what looked like a pirate leprechaun. They started off trading a few blows. The leprechaun quickly resorted to magic, which was unsuccessful. The spell fizzled, giving Player 1 time to grab him with one set of arms and beat on him with the other. After a second spell, the leprechaun freed himself only to be swept up by Player 1s gust spell, sending the leprechaun flying into the discarded swords, knocking him out.

Player 2s second match was against a cat-man. The cat-man had no problem breaking the rules right away, lunging at him with claws bared. Player 2 decided hed do the same, swinging his sword. The two traded blows until they were both ready to drop. Player 2 decide that with his actions, hed simply dodge until the cat-man missed which didn't take long. Once he missed, Player 2 rolled and got enough successes to nearly cleave his opponent in two.

The two players were immediately set at each other to decide a winner. Both were hurt badly by their previous encounters so Player 1 flew up trying to get out of range and use his magic to win. Unfortunately for him, Player 2 resisted his first spell. Player 1 had no choice but to fly down and finish the confrontation. Player 1 hit Player 2 once before taking a sword strike to the chest and keeling over. He didn't pass out, but he sure wasnt feeling well.

At this point, the captain, a strangely charismatic and well dressed orc, jumped down off the ship and challenged Player 2 to hit him once. Player 2 won initiative and got first attack before the captain could get his defences up. This was a GM mistake, so I gave it to him. He pierced the captains shoulder, who just laughed and smacked Player 2 upside the head with the flat of his blade, knocking him over. The captain ordered his new crew onto the ship and they were ready to set sail…

One other mistake that I forgot to mention was that Player 1 was wearing leather armour. That should have absorbed the first two points of damage from each strike, but he hadnt read the rules and I just forgot he was wearing it. Next time well fix that. All in all, a good game. Lasted around 2 hours or just a bit longer. Remember that you can download the basic rules from DungeonCrawlers.com for free. The more people play it, the sooner the retail version will become available!