Chagrinspire Play 3rd Session

So a few players away from Marvel so we thought OK to do some Chagrinspire which might take over as my main game.  As 2 players in I managed to get a semi retired player over who had a character. It's nice to get someone back even occasionally after gaming together since 91. 

We had a nameless wandering rogue 1st lv
An abhuman dogman 1st lv 
A wandering musician with a bone flute (new so zero level)
A drunk landknight merc on a half share who lives in party shack

From a player's suggestion, the main source of Oaths in player village is a Lawful Good church of the gods of light (family of the sun god and light mother). So for a +1 cult weapon, the 1st level characters have nice oaths and are probably nicer than most parties I ever ran. 

The minstrel had hear of the other wasteland village of Shankheim and that it was run by a guild, some say a crime guild. The other experienced chapter invited this new fellow for a drink and invited him to stay in their shack. The were offered a job taking a message to the guild by a shifty wanderer. Yes he was a guild agent sending adventurers to be assessed as a threat or recruits.

Had a safe trip and saw a fortified ruin on the way they avoided. When almost reached the village saw scavengers so hid. Then they heard a roaring machine. A killer traction engine with an angry face and a rotating drum attached with chains held by arms chasing the scavengers. Arrived in the wall-less village and looked at the pubs and saw mostly giant rats as the source of meat. The guild master took the message and gave them a gold coin and offered them a job. Describes a ruined monument beyond a limbless blasted forest with 4 guild members who have not paid for banditry in the area. Told to get 30gp they owe or if beligerant bring them back to be slaves and take whatever else you want. 

Party didn't want to join guild but thought money good. Marched out in morning and found the trees and instead of a monument there was a shack at a crossroad with an iron lamp post. Alsw there was a small canyon with a tree over it with crumbling clay edges of the gulf. The party a bit puzzled by directions being off and the rogue spied on house someone was inside.

The doggo barbarian went to the cliff of the canyon and scuttled down. The rogue not to be out done did an acrobatic flip into the hole. The minstrel climbed out on the log slipped, fell face first 6m into mud and was unconscious. While the rogue helped the minstrel the landknight walked the long way to join them. The doggo found a hole to sniff and when turned back a filthy morlock scuttled to attack him in the back. The party captured and tied the gibbering cannibal.

In the hole found a crude tunnel went into an ancient buried building where the morlock had a nest and some loot. Party camped in here and the Dogman and Rogue sneaked ahead to see what else was here (I'm improvising off a Dyson Map). I might prep up a few Dyson maps with stuff.

Explored a while and found some loot and a few zombies. The merc got restless and gave the minstrel half a healing potion (he also has first aid skills so drunk with a 2-h swords is the healer). The minstral helped throw rocks at some undead and the party united to explore one passage they hoped would reach the shack. Some wondered if a dungeon was really a stealthy shortcut. Found passage into a space under the ruined archway monument they were told was here but it was entirely buried with two sides of the space being loose rubble and the stone sides inside the arch had names and dedications to the Black Sphere soldiers in the apocalypse. Each stone side had a door. Was dog chained up inside by stairs going up and the dogman made friends, released it and recruited it as a follower (spending a luck point). Rogue sneaked upstairs and saw a wizard at a desk in aroom of junt and the spiral stairs kept going up and heard some men talking on the above floor.

Retreated to rest and heal and the Minstral chose his class finally and mad level 1 as a priest. While preying others saw him glow and some other supernatural stuff. He decided his bone flute was a saint leg bone and is holy symbol for the light gods. Checked out some ruins of ancient admiralty and some sea themed items and a globe. Stopped that rout when doors had monsters inside so they shut them and spiked door shut.

When party ready with the dog friend they created up the stairs inside the monument and the wizards was not at his desk. Found a Lv4 spellbook and some other stuff with demonic sigils of the worm god some party had faced.

The next floor up the rogue saw aprentices eating a meal while the wizard was in bed so crept up and kille the wizard. Signalled the others who charged and the minstral priest ordered the men to surrender. Seeing the master dead they were enraged and attacked. The hiding rogue shot at them while they attacked the party with their backs facing him. Two were killed and two captured. Took their books and knives and got a +1 dagger.

Reached the top part of the archway and found some more stuff and could hear noise in lower levels of opposite kind of the arch and a ladder going up. The ladder went to the shack where one of the four men they were sent to deal with was cooking. So into the lower levels they killed two preying acolyte worm priests. Each released a footlong maggot parasite on death a gift of the worm gods oath.   

Unfortunatley down below a 5th lv evil priest gathered undead thralls from other rooms and had the guard stairs while buffing himself with spells. He also cursed stairs. The party saw undead and the new priest vapourised the skeletons and the others attacked the zombies. The rogue shot at the mysterious castr in the shadows and a glowing mae appeared and swung at him. When they got the zombies while the dogman fell but his new dog friend defended him. The minstrel priest got attacked by the worm priest into and fell. The Rogue backstabbed the evil priest who managed to heal himself and had a powerful defence spell up. Eventually his spells expired and were all used and the mercenary killed him. A worse worm thing burst from the carcas and they killed that. Looted place and fled to the surface and the Rogue took out the four gang members they were sent after at night when they were asleep. They hid all the loot they didn't want the Shankheim guilders to take.

back to Shankheim they got a crowd and public claim for defeating the worm cult. They were brought into the guild hall and offered more contracts and given a cut of the slaves. They gave the guild some flash trinkets and huge framed oil paintings.

Recovered stash and went back to Flatspur to visit the priest to get a curse off the rogue. Managed to get a good deal and ate with the priest who like the goodly adventurers.

------

Conferred with players on some rule changes I considered

Mov rate I had flat 12 and considered some formula to vary but we decided on a single stat bonus better than some average several stats which feels like 80s derived stat and overly complex. Human Mov rates in life vary more than most DnD ever has shown BRP too - I liked it in GURPS it varied from stats but feels clunky today.

Considered putting magic skills in separate groups and even though it meant more skills the spell specialists would find it harder to min-max weird abilities to start the game so went back to my older system.

Dropping class-specific non-weapon penalties I'm just gonna make everyone -4. Fighting classes won't care quickly.

Writing my quick start rules currently. Probably will amend the character sheets again - am thinking you get a one-sheet version to start at zero lv and 1st level then use the a5 booklet version when you get a higher level and actually own stuff and record keeping worse - at a higher level still id print the booklet version as a4 bigger on a3 paper. Quickstart is also shows how to fill out sheets and explains stuff.

Players starting with a few meals and items at zero level have actually been very good and motivated players quickly. I'm doing some things so players or the whole party are encouraged to travel light with strength and fighting classes with higher capacities than others. Mostly done as benefits you miss if burdened and also less record keeping.

Once this sheet and character gen basics are done will be time to revise classes then skills then spells again. I do want example character builds which will sorta be quickstart characters, subclasses, and recommendations but can be ignored if you have time or some experience. More like here is how to make a fighter into a paladin or ranger or lean that way over time - also a must for Judge NPCs. It's mostly half-written but editing and cross-checking complex games is a pain. After that, I will start revising my settings with the system built in. 

I've considered a later item would be a spell book with lots more spells and all expanded a-z and then offer alt spell lists for various classes, especially specialist priests I'm happy with core good evil-neutral-ones. 

Im gonna use my tables to make a bunch of locations and try using dyson maps