Post by tikitang in Cattledash! comments

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Hi Karl, thank you for making this wonderful game (Frontier Scum) and this very exciting module!

My friend was having too easy a time of it, though: his single PC was ignoring everything along the gulch and just riding on ahead, so to shake things up I had the cave hyenas launch a surprise attack on him from the smaller cave mouth near Grift's Creek.

I also wanted to run this idea past you to take into account the different speeds of the mounts in the game:

Players on very slow mounts (i.e. nags) or on foot = each 'backtrack,' 'failed ability check,' or 'loitering' causes three boxes to be checked on the law-men progression track.

Players on slow mounts (i.e. donkeys/mules) = each 'backtrack,' 'failed ability check,' or 'loitering' causes two boxes to be checked on the law-men progression track.

Players on normal mounts (i.e. riding horses) = each 'backtrack,' 'failed ability check,' or 'loitering' causes one box to be checked on the law-men progression track.

Players on very fast mounts (i.e. racing horses) = each 'backtrack,' 'failed ability check,' or 'loitering' causes zero boxes to be checked on the law-men progression track.

I assumed the law-men are all on regular riding horses, so wanted to find a way to ensure they caught up with slower travellers more quickly. What do you think?

Karl Druid1 year ago

Hey! Thank you for the kind words 🙏

The premise does sort of depend on players getting distracted by things such as the bank etc, something that is more likely to happen with more players. When that isn't the case throwing some spanners (hyenas) in the works like you did is a great way to handle it.

The horse idea sounds interesting and could defo work, though I would consider how to handle a larger group of players where people may have different kinds of horses. I suppose they would have to adjust to the slowest person in the party?

tikitang1 year ago (3 edits) (+1)

Essentially, if the players decide to travel together (as a group) they have to travel at the speed of the slowest mount in the party, but I guess people on faster mounts can just do everything quicker, so don't incur the same penalties for their actions.

If faster riders decide to leave the slowest one behind, the slowest will be forced to deal with the law-men sooner. Racing horse riders could, in that situation, act like scouts, dashing ahead and back again without causing the law-men to progress any further on their account, but it will be the slow ones who are in the most danger here, which makes sense given the nature of this scenario!

It is, of course, a little abstract, but is really just a way to ensure the PCs on slow mounts feel the consequences!

I have tried using this method with my friend (who was riding a slow mule) and it, combined with the surprise hyena attack, has worked much better to create a sense of tension and peril for him. I think otherwise he would have sailed right through without incident, and the potential for exciting drama this adventure offers would have been missed.

The hyenas killed his mule in the ruins of Grift's Creek, just before he killed their matriarch, and he fled on foot. Thanks to the amount of failed GRIT checks the hyena attack caused, the law have arrived in Grift's Creek not long after he left, so the sense of imminent danger is very real now!

Karl Druid1 year ago

That sounds solid, definitely gonna try running it this way next time!

tikitang1 year ago(+1)

Cool!

As an update: my player turned about when he saw the vultures (I had them be Blood Vultures) perched in the Quiet Valley, as he said he wanted to avoid any more beasts after the Cave Hyena attack. He met Gobias Potter, who warned him he'd have to pay for any pots broken. My player said he had no silver (true), so Gobias told him where he could find some: he said the well next to his hut was a secret emergency access shaft to the Collapsed Mine, which contained a lot of silver!

I planned to use the Mörk Borg module called 'This Hell of Mine' as the interior of the mine: you will see I think it fits quite well to the layout and theme of Bonesome Gulch!

There's also a series of paintings in the mine which I was going to use as a prequel to 'The Blood Moon Vernissage'.

However, as my player descended the rope into the shaft, I made him do a GRIT check to successfully descend. He failed. I made him do a SLICK check to see if he re-caught the rope. He failed. I made him do a GRIT check to see if he landed without taking damage. He failed. I made him roll 2d6 for damage, following the falling damage rules from classic D&D. He was mortally wounded. I made him roll a Death Check...he died!

That should have been the end of the story, but I had him wake up again aboard the Organ Rail! Gobias told the law-men where he was, they dug him out of the mine and the sheriff (who I said was Ingo 'No Mercy' Makarty from Fort Gullet) put him aboard the Morgan Rail and made a deal with Dr Vulchester: the doc would "patch him up" (with Gnomon blood serum) and be allowed to do "medical tests" on him, in exchange for being transported to Fort Gullet to hang. When my player woke up in the prison car, he was shocked to discover his arms had been replaced with Giant Eagle wings (I took this from 'Borrowed Time').

When he met Vulchester, the doctor explained he had used him as a prototype for the Harpy. Now Vulchester is dead and my player is heading toward the front of the train!

Karl Druid1 year ago

Hell yeah! This is exactly how it should go, absolute chaos and thinking on your feet 🤘 thanks for sharing!

itch.io

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