Lunch Break RPG - July 3rd & 10th Play Report

Overview

This is a play report for my ongoing ttrpg I run during occasional lunch breaks at work, all dependent on who is available for that day. This occurs roughly once a week, but there are occasional longer breaks when people are unavailable. I require a minimum of two players to run a session. I am using Index Card RPG and various other resources to run the sessions.

Please refer to this post for more details.

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July 3rd & 10th Play Report

Each session, players present are given a sheet in the style of a Classifieds ad. This ad contains features five problems occurring in the aptly named Dungeon Town. Players are asked to select from these five options as the adventure for the session.

This session, the players chose two scenarios from the options:

Basilisk in the Coop

A saboteur, or perhaps rambunctious youth, placed a snake egg in Kelly McCoy's rooftop chicken coop, causing a basilisk to hatch! Ms. McCoy is looking for any willing adventurers to remove the freshly hatched fiend from her home.

Player characters present:

• Madge, Ent Mage
  
• Chadwick, Human Warrior

Preparation

I determined the nature of the curse for the Gauntlet ahead of time, planning to slowly reveal its nature through several sessions. The Gauntlet provided a great bonus to Strength, but is sentient and would seek to consume living things and become more and more demanding. It was explicitly modeled off of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

I did not prep anything for the scenario beyond the pitch above. I planned that the basilisk would be small and fairly benign if approached with caution. The main challenge would be locating it in the house and defeating it without falling victim to its petrifying gaze or venomous bite.

I also used the following resources as my core prep:

- Index Card RPG Master Edition ; This is my core rulebook for these sessions. I am not using the actual setup of "difficulty per location" that ICRPG uses, instead using the more traditional "here is the number you need to beat". I also adjusted the Effect dice so that D6 is "Bows & Tools" and D8 is "Weapons" because I did not want to include guns. Otherwise, pretty much using the system as is.

- Dungeons & Drawings ; This is my favorite monster manual. It has a set of generic stats to describe the creature, a paragraph of text on the creature, and a full page picture. It is not specific to any rpg system, but gives me enough tools to pull in a creature and run it if I understand the system itself pretty well.

- Monster Miens ; I wanted a reaction table like the Miens for Troika!!, but just some general lists. This is sorted by creature type, which I thought would be great for the quick reaction I want as a GM during the sessions. I may need to replace this in the future if it begins to feel too repetitive, but for now it works.

Session Summary

The players entered the home of Kelly McCoy, who quickly rushed them into her kitchen. The rest of the doors in the house were shut and had various types of cloth shoved at the base. Ms. McCoy admitted that she had lost track of the basilisk, but knew for certain it was not in the kitchen.

Chadwick took the lead while Madge, an inexperienced adventurer, chose to remain behind and comfort Ms. McCoy's nerves. A lucky roll resulted in the discovery that the basilisk was in the drawing room just a few doors down from the kitchen. The basilisk was spotted on the chandelier and Chadwick immediately began to reach as far as possible to try and slay the small beast. A few successful but negligible hits and Chadwick called for Madge's assistance in retrieving the creature.

The basilisk was knocked loose and Chadwick's gauntlet flung itself forward in an attempt to consume the beast. Chadwick failed a Constitution roll to move with the arm, and the conflict between the two meant the gauntlet missed its target and basilisk landed directly on Chadwick's arm, sinking its teeth into his flesh and poisoning him.

Madge stepped in at this point to separate the two. Madge attempted to administer some antivenom, but Chadwick's gauntlet interrupted again and ate the dosage whole. The benefits of the antivenom did not transfer to Chadwick, but luckily Madge found a second dose for Chadwick.

Madge then bandaged the basilisk and calmed it, placing the creature in a small knothole in her body rather than slaying it. Ms. McCoy was satisfied with the removal of the creature and asked what they would like to be paid for the services.

Chadwick's Gauntlet finally spoke, asking for to be fed. Chadwick felt inclined to feed his useful armament and Ms. McCoy reluctantly provided a live chicken to feed the gauntlet. Chadwick failed another roll and the gauntlet suddenly and violently consumed the chicken, splattering blood everywhere in the process. As it was moving of its own volition and scrubbing the floor to soak up any blood and remnants it had missed, Madge felt it was time to intervene and separate Chadwick from his possession. The gauntlet immediately fell limp and Madge refused to return it, stating that as she could not wear it, it was safer with her.

Reflection

This was the final session before Chadwick's player left the group for a position. I wanted to resolve the story of the gauntlet, and so used this adventure to ramp up the concerning nature of this object. Successful rolls from Chadwick would have meant more control over the object, but the multiple failures meant the gauntlet's true nature was revealed more quickly. A fun adventure with more humor than terror and a fitting conclusion to the brief arc of the cursed gauntlet.