I ran
Glaxorzis as a quick pick-up game on the OSR Discord server yesterday! Around
90 minutes, for three players – a nice group of chill folks, two of them I’ve
interacted on the server before (but haven’t played together) and one new person
– so, overall, a great time!
We used
Searchers of the Unknown. Great ruleset for quick games. “Think D&D without
the ability scores. Do you know how in Basic you can write down the scores of a
monster in a single stat line? This game just uses that for player characters
as well”.
I whipped
up some pre-gens using my trusty science fantasy frankentable (a gigantic
ever-growing generator I maintain in Inspiration Pad Pro).
The players
picked these characters:
Baron
Chosroes the Purple (enterprising
mercenary)
• Stats: Leather, AC 7, MV 9, HD 1, 8 hp, #AT
1
• Arms: laser pistol (d8), shield (-1 AC, -1
MV), axe (d6)
• Equipment: hand-torch, chalk, small sack,
electric lamp, holodisk
Timo
(holographic golem)
• Stats: Plate, AC 3, MV 3, HD 1, 8 hp, #AT 1
• Arms: energy pistol (d6), shield (-1 AC, -1
MV), sling (d10)
• Equipment: 50' rope, hand-torch, 6 rations,
50' wire rope, backpack, moldy looking glass, with the power to make the
material immaterial
Europa (shy hero)
• Stats: Chain, AC 5, MV 6, HD 1, 4 hp, #AT 1
• Arms: shield (-1 AC, -1 MV), grenade (d10),
polearm (d6)
• Equipment: musical instrument (loud
synthesizer), water bottle, hand-torch, candle, grappling hook, bedroll,
decaying book, acquired from the frightening tower
We bumped
them up to level 2.
Then the
players came up with their motivation to go after Glaxorzis, that sorcerous
CREEP!: Timo the golem had been created by Glaxorzis and now wants to take
revenge; Baron the mercenary was cheated out of a promising contract by
Glaxorzis, and Europa (who joined 30 minutes into the game) was the heroic type
who is generally out fighting baddies.
The session
was enough to cover most of the first level.
- The group
explored the passages, got into a fight with the Orange Goblin guards, routed
them, took and interrogated a hostage (“Bingus”), then let it go free.
- They went
back to free the imprisoned giant. They gave him rations and started working on
bending the prison bars.
- The goblins
returned with back-up and their leader, striking from two directions, and
another fight ensued.
- But in the
meantime one character managed to free the giant (using that randomly rolled
dematerialization device). The giant (“Chungus”) went berserk – well, it couldn’t
do too much, as he is a 15’ tall dude in narrow cave passages. So he crawled
through with great fervor, sometimes blocking the passage, which added an
interesting element to the fight.
- After
defeating the goblins, the party explored some more. They steered clear of the
lake with mist, got the giant to clear the passage blocked by the collapse and
went round. They found the shaft to level 2, descended, and this is where we
finished.
- They left three
rooms on this level unexplored (which is where the treasure was…). However,
they did grab the goblin chief’s Scimitar of Unhealing Wounds!
Glaxorzis, you
sorcerous creep, they are coming after you! AND THEY ARE GONNA FEED YOU TO
CHUNGUS.