Finally had my first ACKS session in my Crimson Sun setting (Dark Sun meets Planet Algol meets a million other things in a hot gonzo mess), which is about 20% done and being developed as things go along.
I’d converted B4 The Lost City, because I love the module and it fit into Athas nicely.
Since civilization was going to be a long way away, I started everyone off with some henchmen: their choice of two normal men or a 1st-level. The party consists of a mage with a mage henchman, an aristocrat (Thomas Weigel’s class) with two normal men as armsmen, and a dwarven craft priest with a dwarven vaultguard bodyguard. Despite the availability of 11 custom Athasian classes and 8 Player’s Companion classes, only one player ventured outside the core book.
The party start out lost and scattered from a caravan by a sandstorm, and stumble upon some ruins. They make their way inside. First thing, the dwarven vaultguard triggers a trap and falls into a room with three fire beetles; he bashes one dead and gets munched up while the rest of the party figure out what to do (eventually using a rope to lower themselves in by holding on to it and triggering the trap, until one finds the ladders).
The fight was a catastrophe: the aristocrat and both dwarves are knocked out, and the mage with Healing 3 fails a bunch of proficiency throws. At the end of it, the craft priest is put out of his newly-paraplegic misery, the aristocrat dies from not being healed to 1 hp within 1 turn (with a destroyed eye), and the vaultguard… well, “the bloody mess that was once your body is dimly recognizable.”
The players loved the Mortal Wound table.
The diminished party continue to explore, meeting up with the Brotherhood and joining them. They take things very slow (at the end of the session, they were on their 7th day in the pyramid, and had explored most of the first two real levels; probably 20 rooms), resting with the Brotherhood frequently - usually they managed no more than 12 turns of exploring before retreating to rest.
A Brotherhood member is recruited as a henchman by the mage to round out the diminished party.
A few mortal wounds are survived, but eventually, the Brotherhood member and one of the 0-level armsmen are wounded so badly they each need a week of bedrest; they’re left with the Brotherhood.
Sleep proves invaluable. The party defeats the warrior-maidens and the magi, in two separate encounters, each with one sleep spell (each time, the leader is left standing). They also use it to take out a giant gecko (leaving one to fight) and an ambush of 10 morlocks (turning what I thought was a sure TPK into an easy victory).
Eventually, yellow mold kills the remaining 0-level armsman - you can tell the players’ experience is far removed from old-school D&D when they go around poking in a room with yellowish mold visible on the surfaces!
The party completely fails to find several prisoners (replacement PCs and henchmen) taken by the Magi and Warrior-Maidens, because of their cautious tactics (“once sleep is cast, we go rest!” – justified by a serious lack of front-line fighters), but the prisoners effect their own escapes, manage to join up and find the Brotherhood sanctuary. The session ends as the new party is united.
Observations
The game was simple for D&D veterans, despite the differences. The player who’d started on BECM was particularly enthralled, but everyone loved it. The simplicity went over well. Only one player had real problems with the low ability scores (I used 5 rows of 6x3d6, allowed assigning them, and 2:1 transfer into the prime requisite).
I think 3d6 in order is a superior generation method; I cautiously didn’t use it, but that resulted in players creating replacement PCs that were of the same classes as the first ones. I think letting the dice determine which classes are a good fit is a good way to force stubborn players to try different classes.
B4 suffers from the unconventinal set-up; 1st-level PCs with no access to a town are in a bad position, unable to return and reap the benefits of their adventuring (i.e. get their XP) and replace lost members. The game went well, but I expect it will go much better when the PCs are based in Tyr and are exploring the twin dungeons of Kalak’s Ziggurat and Under-Tyr, and making wilderness forays.
Henchmen are absolutely necessary, especially with only 3 PCs. They should probably have had more; two 0-level henchmen would have been better than the dwarven vaultguard, but the mage henchman brought sleep to the table and was single-handedly more efficient than the entire party.
Despite being excited about henchmen, the aristocrat’s player balked when he was told they expect 15% of HIS share of treasure. We’re going with a half-share for each henchman from the total treasure instead. (Justified by the PCs being the “officers” of the “company,” similar to how pirate ship charters gave officers an extra share or part-share.) I think having to share treasure and XP with henchmen will make them carefully balance out the party size. They’ll probably keep a pool of “reserve” henchmen (up to their limit) and only take part of them along on most adventures.