Goal System Delves: Scratching the Surface

Last night Jason dropped over to the house for an evening of geeking and we decided to do a test run of an encounter for Goal System Delves.

The first item on the agenda was to create a character. I decided to have Jason create two characters where it was just the both of us.

The first character was a Human Wild Slayer.

One thing we found with the character creation is that it was simple and easy. Most everything is based around your class and race which determines your skills and abilities. When you choose a class (i.e. Fighter) you have to choose a subtype of that class to flesh out your character. Jason choose the Wild Slayer. As you may have guessed with the chosen class come special abilities and powers, which are listed on his character sheet. You will notice on the character sheet fighter is listed under the traits. This trait is called a "Class trait" which would be used to overcome certain adventure challenges, hazards, attack, etc.

Everyone starts with a standard 4D (4 six-sided dice) in each trait. Your trait scores are mostly modified by equipment, which is reflected above. For those who chose a race with a favored class, your class trait would increase by 1. Because Jason choose to be human, any class is a favored class, which is why he has 5D in his class trait (Fighter). 

We opt'd to use the role play traits which allowed the player to have an added edge in a specific area outside of an encounter. Jason's Wild Slayer chose intimidation which he felt suited his character.

For his second character, Jason rounded out the group with a Elvish Bard.

The creation of this character was much the same as the Wild Slayer but a few small differences. Now that he chose a race outside the norm, he would reap the advantages and disadvantages of said race. This is turn was reflected by modifications to his traits. Due to being an Elf he received a +1D defense for being abnormally agile and a -1D to toughness for having a lower constitution. He would also gain a +1D to his class trait as Mage is a favored class for Elves. He then opt'd to take Lore:Magic as his role play trait.

Now that the characters were out of the way we decided to get this bad boy started. With only two characters we figured it would be easier to deploy and underground passage that would be revealed as the characters explore. As this was a "last minute" decision to play we grabbed two of my West Wind models to represent each character.

Right off the bat Jason decided to head his Bard (Dancing Gypsy lady) to the wizards table. I then had him make an Adventure Challenge and classified it as Arcane. I then referenced the Adventure Challenges Master Table to find the TN number he would need to roll, which is 3. What I mean by this is Jason would need to roll 3 goals on his 5 dice to successfully pass that challenge and see what secrets the tome holds. He proceeded to roll only getting , one 4 and one 5. (In goal system a 4+ on a D6 is one goal and a 6 would grant you two goals.) 

Jason then proceeded to head east with his Wild Slayer leading the exploration. Upon taking the turn he noticed Skeletal Champion coming out of the darkness. The initiative was then rolled. This is done by rolling 2D6 and adding it to your Initiative Score. You Initiative Score is determine by adding your class and defense trait together.(You don't add modification for equipment).

 The Bard went first and used his Magical Songs power. This allowed him to buff himself and the Wild Slayer. The first melee combat was about to ensue. The Skeletal Champion charged the human. Due to charging the skeleton was able to add +2D to his attack which increased his chance of hitting. When you attack in Delves you roll your class trait if you are the attacker and roll your defense if you are the defender. If you as the attacker roll more goals then the defender then you have scored a hit. The skeleton rolled 2 goals, but the Wild Slayer was able to defend the rush with 4 goals being rolled.

The fight continued with the Wild Slayer bringing down the great axe on the undead champion. Jason rolled 6D for his attack. He had a class trait of 5D but because the bard was aiding in combat he received an additional +1D. Jason scored 5 goals to my 2 goals. The Slayer hit its mark! Now that Jason hit the undead skeleton he had to roll to determine the damage caused. When determining the damage you roll your Strength trait plus any weapon modifiers (+2D for Great Axe) and the number of goals you bested the target by. In this case it would be +3D. This gave him a total of 9D vs my toughness of 5D. Jason rolled and got 10 goals, and I rolled 4 for the skeleton. His attack caused 6 damage to the Skeletal Champion's hp, which was enough to kill the undead horror.

After the battle the party continued to explore finding another skeletal champion and dispatching it. The bard then stumbled upon a tomb in the winding tunnels and choose to to take a closer look. For this challenge of choose the Dungeon type from the Adventures Challenges Master Table. The TN level for the Mage was 5 as its is more difficult for mage to discern traps and what not. Jason rolled his class trait only getting 3 goals failing his attempt.

This in turn set off the trap releasing the Wight to attack the Bard. Initiative was then rolled. The wight  moved and used his Energy Drain power on the Bard. The Wight rolled his class trait of 5D vs the Bard's defense of 5D. The Wight scored 5 goals to the Bard's 2 goals. The energy drain was successful giving the Bard a -1D to all traits and move.

The battle continued with the Wild Slayer charging over at the Wight. This would be a big move as the Human would get +2D for the charge and another +1 for the friend aiding in combat. For a grand total of 8D. The Wild Slayer would attack and beat the Wight by 3 goals. This would give him a damage total of 6D for Strength, +3D for the extra goals gained from the attack, +2D for the special Wild Slayer Ability called Furious Charge for a total of 11D. The dice were rolled. Jason scored 11 goals to my 3 goals doing 8 damage to my hit points. This would be enough to kill the wight but he has 3 fate points. I decide I will use 2 fate points to negate the damage and the combat continues on. (Each player character start with 3 fate which they can use for different things such as the above mentioned. Creatures, if they have fate would have it listed in their profile.)

The combat would continue on, with the Wild Slayer taking a few big hits but was able to stay alive long enough to take down the Wight.

All in all it was good time. I didn't use all the creature powers as I am still a little green with the system.  We did find that revealing the map as we go slowed the game down a little. For the next dry run we plan on having the board deployed before hand with all baddies on the table.

I am still working on terrain and models for the opening adventure and hoping to have everything in order for next Saturday. I am aiming to provide a sneak peak of whats to come, so stay tuned!


Thanks for reading,


Tenz