Play Report: the Guest Stars playtest

by locheil

During the editing of The Guest Stars, I hosted a short playtest to help me get my bearings on my first third twenty-seventh draft of the map. The results were very helpful and also very funny, so I figured I'd share.

This will technically be my second play report, but the format will be more traditional this time around, because I'm stealing it from Ro and Falcon. (everyone say thank you!)

Setup

Because 91 - BEAUTIFUL GROTTO was submitted so early, the three wise men were actually the first hook/route added to the project. (then the runaway princess, then the two "normal" routes, then the frogs, then i needed 3 more to complete the set)

With 3 hours to sundown, three wise men approach the front door of Big Evil Castle, following the falling star in search of the messiah.

• Paragon Carwyn, a high-strung pyromancer C on his last legs, financially speaking. (He brought the gold.)
• Serafin, a sexagenarian slayer C adventurer-turned-contented-academic. (He brought the myrrh.)
• Przegrzebek, a friendly street dauber C. This is his first dungeon :) (He brought the frankincense.)

I initially encouraged my play(test)ers to bring C templates because I was nervous they'd get mulched by a wandering vampire.

As for the map, levels 1 and 2 were stable enough to run at the time, but the sewers looked nothing like the current iteration. I was also still receiving room submissions at the time, so I had to leave gaps for myself to fill in. I'll point out changes where relevant.

The Messiahdventure

The wise men knock on 1 - GATE, expecting no resistance whatsoever to the comings and goings of three handsome old coots of spiritual significance. They are greeted by a dark orc with a major hangover, who refuses them entry.

IMH (in my headcanon) the dark orcs all wear sunglasses to compensate for inherent sunlight sensitivity. This never made it into the final version because I forgot about it

The wise men get to work killing stinkbag with kindness-- Przegrzebek even offers the last sip of his beer. Then Carwyn reveals an incredible ability:

the sun up/sun down mechanic was already in the project at this stage
I was surprised multiple times by my players' class abilities because I did not vet their classes ahead of time. I did this because I was lazy, but also because I wanted to see how weird GLOG shit would bounce off the dungeon rooms when I didn't have time to adjust my prep.

Now endeared to the newly un-hungover orcs (who are ready to get back to drinking), the three wise men source info about the occupants of Redmont Castle: vampires in the basement, dancing ghouls in the main hall, leetle dragon fellers in the tunnels, and "the ghost blob" ("CLEANS UP AFTER YE. HARD TO SEE, HATES SALT"). 

Forewarned and forearmed, the party leaves 7 - EAST COURTYARD for 8 - HALL OF NAB, where the aforementioned dancing ghouls dangle from long puppet strings. Suddenly, strands of silk extend from the ceiling to steal their items!

Carwyn's fireball makes quick work of the spider's nest, and the wise men jog off with the loot: choreographic manuals and a magic sword, as well as one of the deceased dancers, stiff and dressed up like a foppish pirate. (Serafin arranges the body in a respectful position.)

Onwards to 23 - TWO KEY JUNCTION, where the party concurs they should walk in the direction of lively conversation (as where there is conversation, there are people, and someone must know where the messiah is). This leads them to 10 - LASER OBELISKS.

Archon immediately regretted metagaming, befitting his honorable mien. Such is the thorny path of the community submission dungeon.
This room was moved soon after the playtest, when I realized I wanted it as a "gate" between the main house and the wizard tower, instead of blocking a random hallway for no real diegetic reason.

Przegrzebek's street daubing comes in handy, as he summons an inkling to solve the obelisk conundrum...

i love street daubers

we wrapped session one on Serafin's one-liner

Just past the obelisks, immediately before entering 27 - VIP LOUNGE, the wise men are distracted by the door to 60 - PANIC ROOM. Inside is a young woman (Lisa :D) who informs them that, if there are ANY babies at this chaotic evil house party, they may be among the goblins, who make their lair in the basement, and are always breeding.

the panic room also moved: again, too many obstacles in this random hallway. I eventually broke up the hallway with 26 - FORGOTTEN FANE.

So the party doubles back to 24 - MARBLE BALCONY and clamber down a floor, into a room with a fountain of frolicking 57 - GOBLIN STATUES.

The wandering around was a consistent hiccup in the playtest, which led to the eventual 1-2 page themed areas in the final version. The dungeon is still a bit of a maze, but having dark souls area names to fall back on helps discretize the navigation somewhat.

The three wise men venture shriekwards, into 58 - MOUTH GATE...

the iron ball "uvula" was an ad-lib that made it into the final

...and quickly double back to check the east doors, which lead to the WIRE WEB.

Then Serafin realizes the mouth room is only 10' long (extremely jumpable!), makes the long jump, and lands smack dab in the middle of 59 - VAMPIRE DEN.

my favorite running bit of the playtest

They flag down the butler, the only vampire willing to speak the players (he unlives to serve), and ask for directions.

this interaction is what prompted the addition of the ghoul horse stable: I just couldn't stop thinking, if the vampires here are all guests, where the fuck did they park?

The three wise men, now directed, unbar a door towards the west prison wing, but first, they must traverse an 55 - ARENA full of posed mannequin spectators.

i also liked when Archon and Mihau immediately started workshopping the arena into the current version while Loch left to grab food.

In the west wing, they soon encounter a pair of goblins on lookout duty.

there was a general paucity of goblins in the so-called goblin section, so i added more and more fixed encounters like these guards as the project went on

the goblin agriculture subplot from this session led to the addition of the monk's garden on level 1

As a wise man himself, Serafin makes excellent use of his only nonviolent Slayer ability, and is able to establish that 1) there is a baby among the goblins, and 2) the goblins don't trust them enough to see it until 3) they go back and open the (barred) door to the rest of the basement.

we were at this for literal hours. god i love playing goblins
session 2 ended soon after this

However, after a bit of doubling back, the party discovers that they have, in fact, been locked in with the goblins. Someone (a bdsm vampire, no doubt) has replaced the bar on the door. It seems the vampires have locked the goblins out of the chaotic evil house party: how cruel!

In the process, the three wise men also meet a totally normal grandmother, chained to the wall (56 - SCARLET'S CELL).

scarlet antimony :) i decided on her name here

ANYWAY, to gain access to the messiah, the three wise men decide they must help the goblins. To help the goblins, they must escape the goblin halls. And to escape the goblin halls, they must pass thru the sewers, and in doing so, stumble across 54 - TANNING ROOM.

Past the inexplicable fishbowl man, who is just the least helpful NPC ever, the party encounters a gremlin in 48 - DJ BOOTH, hard at work making electronic music.

The three wise men, charmed by the second, but much more talkative, inexplicable dungeon creature, immediately take a detour to investigate the prison's east wing, which reportedly "HAS LOADS OF JUNK".

the PCs didn't know they were a weresparkledog at the time, but there were signs

And within the detour, the wise men discovered the 102 - WOUNDED SAINT.

in the final dungeon, the wounded saint is deep in the sewers, with a trail of crystallized saints blood leading to it- much more fitting, tonally, than directly adjacent to the silly tumblr gremlin

i love daubers i love daubers i love daubers

The saint is healed just enough to stand, and then charge directly through the northern wall, opening the way to 103 - STAR GIANT. The wise men, knowing an important omen when they see one, follow closely.

It is at this point that the party must take rest in the dark, cushioned, and quilted hall (to mitigate exhaustion) next to a literal sleeping giant. During this time, Carwyn releases the Saint from its wounds, using iron skin to render it insensate and warmth to give it extra HP as he rips out the many iron spears. 

I have been accused of being too soft a gm. I counter that my players are too caring and lovely.

Meanwhile, Serafin and Przegrzebek have a strange encounter in the dark...

this was a random roll from the star giant's dreams. In retrospect, I misread "rocketship" as "spaceship", which I turn interpreted as "UFO"

They try to parley with the strange creature, until it whips out a metal wand from a hatch to menace them.

if I'm being completely honest, I think I just got jealous of the dauber. It looked like so much fun...

The cruel and evil gun-toting inkling points one of its polygons directly at Serafin!!!!

Having defeated the unidentified flying dauber, the three wise men are permitted to ride in its cockpit, and thusly follow the elk saint to the head of the star giant. The elk whispers in its ear, summoning a portal to another room. The party flies unidentifiedly thru, and finds themselves face to face with a sleeping fawn.

messiah found, gg :)

Reflection

I think this dungeon plays well with lots of NPCs who can help you map out the dungeon and identify the tools in your toolbox. Characters like Lisa, the butler, the balefrog, the alchemist, the illusionist- all submitted, all vital to the flow of exploration.

 

Another thing the playtest taught me was how important redundancy is when it comes to the routing of this dungeon. The deer messiah is a good example, being hidden away deep in the dungeon, with very few characters knowing how to get to it. So helping the wounded saint is another way to find the messiah, and the blood trail helps you find the saint, and the dobermen point you toward the blood trail. But also, you can skip the deer messiah entirely and favor the goblin messiah, because there IS a goblin child with "a festooned pupil like an eye full of stars" (a post-playtest addition, but a very good one).

 

I also think my random encounter rules are probably too lax. The PCs ran into kobolds, once. Lame.

 

I do think I am occasionally too soft of a gm, but I think this dungeon reflects a community vibe that is aligned with my inclinations: the rooms that assume a fight will break out are far outnumbered by the rooms where you can Talk to a Guy about a Thing.

 

I think Mihau put it best: