A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Banda Sea: LotFP with NonVancian Magic and the "New" Playtest Rules Session 0 Recap

 

Rules: LotfP; with my take on the Eldritch Cock Playtest Rules with starting equipment based on Bouko de Groot's excellent books on Dutch Armies of the early modern period, not sure if the mercenaries hired by the VOE were kitted out that way but seems like a place to start. Every PC gets a Servant and Linkboy's service for one month (the understanding being that the Servant is a valet per a real fun novel about the period and the Linkboy is a camp-follower) and all those PCs and NPCs get something from the Deck of Stuff. We decided that the Common language for their unit was Portuguese. No XP, at the end of an "adventure" (Referee's discretion) d6s were rolled with mods from an issue of Green Devil Face plus I made the players put their heads down and vote for an MVP PC. The players get a bonus to their next level up roll if they share some account of the session.

Modules: Tower of the Stargazer, don't read this if don't want no spoilers for that there.

Characters: All PCs are 1st level retainers are 0 level, the word after their class is their job in the unit.

-Rene (Fighter- Caliverman), Pots (Servant), Marcin (Linkboy)

-AA (Fighter - Pikeman, back rank), Ohim (Valet), Umberto (Linkboy, Loyalty of 12)

-Tony Danzig (Fighter - Pikeman, ?back rank?), Thrash Bandicoot (Valet), Fiorella Giardio (Linkboy)

-Constantine (Specialist), ?Tobias? (?Valet?), Tabitha (?Linkboy?), also a 1st level Henchman: George (?Fighter?)

-Timmy Holbein (Magic User), ??? (Valet), ???

Recap:

 Resting in an in in neutral Zevenbergen, a group of soldiers, recently enlisted by the VOE to a establish a factory and monopoly on the trade of myristica fragrans, heard from one of their fellows, one Jan Hammer that a renowned burglar from Siena had recently passed through this very inn on his way to purloin the collections of some local astrologer. This astrologer, it seemed, had established about ten miles from town a large folly of a tower where he might ponder the heavens. Nothing had been heard of him hence but he was reputed to have a set of optical equipment that the Emperor himself sought. The acrobatic Tuscan had promised Jan a drink upon return from his successful sorte on the tower, which he had estimated as being already days late and Jan was quite parched.

The assembled soldiers seeing no harm in remedying the arid throat of their comrade and judging that they would not miss their berths, journeyed to the tower. With ferocious bravery they divested themselves of any ferrous armor and distributed these arms amongst their attendants and companions upon discovering that part of the folly of the tower was that it seemed to have attracted the attentions of a localized storm that gave no sign of abating before the return of the Redeemer. Having braved the blasted plain, Umberto was sent to rap the massive knockers on the double doors of the top of the stage while Tabitha dodged lightning to examine a body found to be somewhat charred and formerly possessed of several sacks and grappling irons as well as rope, as well as an estoc split in two. Scarcely had the sound of the massive iron doors begun reverberating those assembled, than the doors began to open of their own volition with no hand upon the serpentine handles. The party made themselves comfortable in the parlor of the tower and noticed some fine looking bottles of Jura, as well as confiscating some china. An assemblage of crates was revealed to be a dummy covering a trapdoor leading to a lower level of the tower. More pressing to the group was the trickle of what appeared to be blood on the stair case that wound up for two levels before terminating in a door the key hole of which was source of the sanguine emanation. The door was battered down and some of the soldiers companions lost their lives in the torrent of blood was released.

In the room, surrounded by a carefully arranged circle of salt was a man in fashions 3 generations past their day, who explained that he was indeed the astrologer that had erected the tower and that he had access to the wisdom of Arabic sages that allowed him to summon the Angels and Daemons of the Heavens but had gone awry in the hiring of an assistant. The lack of competent assistance had lead to him being confined in that circle for the past 59 years. Upon the offer of 100 francs, George dutifully scooted a bit of salt out of the circle with his toe. The somewhat touched scholar dutifully entered a nearby closet upon exiting the circle to retrieve the payment. While absent they decided to release their new patron from this mortal coil as swiftly as they had from the saline circle. No less wary for his long confinement the Stargazer, was able to cast a weird vortex which then permanently tied his physical being through an umbillical cord to Constantine who had brought his halberd up to smite the ill dressed wizard. A scene foreshadowing the assassination of Wallenstein ensued, but for one major difference Herr Holbein cast magic jar and successfully imprisoned the Stargazer shortly after he unleashed a cloudkill and killing nearly all the retainers as well A.A., aside from Umberto who quickly took up the arms of his slain master.

I don't usually like to reward XP until the party gets back to town but we had neared our preset stopping time and the trapping of the wizard and the de facto securing of the Tower itself seemed like an "adventure" per Moldvay. Very successful game, it was a great feeling to be able to introduce a player to the GAME, kill their first PC.

This is very much a draft but I wanted to get it up in order to help verify some of the details. Hope you enjoyed it.