The Forge Archives

So we just finished a boredom busting session of Creeks and Crawdads.  It was pretty dang interesting, though highly fatal for all involved.  I don't know if i'd play it again anytime soon, but for a 45 minute stretch i did enjoy myself...  The system worked out pretty nicely, especially for this game.


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<Lxndr> Dawson's Creeks And Crawdads
<Lxndr> Session The Only
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<Lxndr> Krill, Bob, and Bradly are all in town, sitting in the shade of the God-Rock that everyone worships, when they remember.
'oo..lookit...rock..."
* Krill cleans his mandibles.
* Bob-the-Oblivious doesn't actually remember... it was all a mistake
<Krill> "Show respect, Bradly."
* Krill is hungry.
<Krill> "I am hungry."
* Bradly-Crawfish kinda just vegetates....
* Krill is STILL hungry.
* Krill clicks his claw together.
"whats that?" he points at the rock.
<Lxndr> Krill, Bradly and Bob are all unaware of the water-spiders coming up on them.  A number of proles scatter as they notice the water-spiders, though a few stick around because, well, the thinker isn't running...
<Krill> "That is The Rock. It's the boss.":
"oh....."
<Lxndr> And at that moment, the water-spiders attack Krill.
<Krill> "It made me smart...you skilled and--HEY!"
<Lxndr> The waterspiders swarm down on Krill, performing an advanced and complicated maneuver that, in the end, does nothing.
* Bradly-Crawfish continues to stare at the rock.
* Bob-the-Oblivious looks over and sees that something is wrong
Bob Smash!!!
<Krill> "DEFEND! DEFEND! For the sake of the Rock, help me!"
* Bradly-Crawfish blinks. oo!! combat!....i wnat food....
* Bradly-Crawfish goes to help out poor krill
* Bob-the-Oblivious stumbles confusedly into battle swinging his rock
<Lxndr> Krill has the inkling that he should have thought of something, but he pursues the thought too harshly and it goes away.
<Krill> "Whew! Thanks, Bob. Now, We must...um...I am hungry."
ooooo... food...
<Lxndr> As the spider collapses to the ground, the trio realizes they have no idea what they're supposed to be doing here.  There's a spider corpse sitting on the God Rock, though.
* Bradly-Crawfish starst to eat the spider corpse.
* Bob-the-Oblivious realizes that he can eat the spider...
* Bob-the-Oblivious begins to chew contentedly on the spider
* Bradly-Crawfish is placidly munching away*
* Krill begins to eat the head of the spider.
* Krill stops.
<Krill> "WAIT!"
<Krill> "STOP!"
* Bob-the-Oblivious stops
<Krill> "Be quiet...I have to think."
* Bob-the-Oblivious goes back to munching, quietly
* Bradly-Crawfish just keeps on munching
* Krill wonders what he was doing.
<Krill> "Hey, a spider! Oooh, the head...the best part!"
* Krill begins eating again.
* Krill eats his fill.
<Lxndr> After devouring the spider (and luckily managing to digest the poison harmlessly), the trio falls asleep.  A while later, they awaken once more...
<Krill> "I am not hungry."
" nither am i
<Krill> "I wonder why?"
"Bob is still hungry..."
"..bob is....."
<Lxndr> Krill suddenly notices the... lack of activity in the crawdad village.  He looks around and notices that all the proles are gone.  So is everyone else!
<Krill> "Hey..."
* Krill counts the 3 of them.
<Krill> "There are at least four of us missing. Something's wrong."
<Krill> "HEY! PROLES! I SPEAK! PROLES!"
" 1...2....uhm...."
"1....2....w....
"
* Krill drifts down from the rock.
* Bob-the-Oblivious chews his rock in confusion...
"what you say?"
" you..me... whos missing...?"
<Krill> "Bradly. Bob. Follow."
* Bradly-Crawfish looks at krill and does so.
* Bob-the-Oblivious blinks in confusion... light fills his eyes suddenly and he follows
* Krill walks into town, looking for ANYONE.
* Krill clicks his claws nervously.
"are poeople here?
"
<Lxndr> Krill, Bradly and Bob walk past the snail shells as they look around the town.  They can't seem to figure out where everyone went.  
"..noone home.."
<Krill> "Well...at least I'm not hungry."
<Krill> "And I have you and Bob."
* Krill leans back against a snail shell.
* Bob-the-Oblivious drools in contentment
"..bradly like krillie"
<Krill> "No clues...no trace...strange."
<Krill> "I'm fond of you too, Tooly."
"..i bradly... tooly dead.."
<Lxndr> As Krill leans back against the snail shell, it slowly begins to move.  Krill realizes that it is still inhabited, and in fact these shells shouldn't have been here in the first place!  Snails are generally a delicious meat animal...
<Krill> "Wait a minute."
* Krill turns to snail. "Why are you here? I'm not hungry."
<Lxndr> The snail emerges from its shell and...
<Krill> "You don't belong. You are not one of my 7."
<Krill> "BOB!"
* Bob-the-Oblivious looks up expectantly
<Lxndr> Bradley realizes what is happening just as the snail begins taking pieces of flesh out of Krill's side.  It's a piranha snail!
<Krill> "Bob...teach these dumb beast-HEY!"
" eee!! eater snail!! eater snail!!!move!"
* Krill thrashes about in pain and confusion.
* Krill passes out.
* Bob-the-Oblivious flails around uselessly with his rock!
<Lxndr> The piranha snail flails around equally uselessly.  The other piranha snail awakens.
<Lxndr> Like a buzzsaw, the second piranha snail effortlessly tears poor Bradly to bits.  Meanwile...
<Lxndr> Bob the Oblivious makes a very, very precise blow against a perfectly armored part of the piranha snail.
* Bradly-Crawfish passes out cold.
* Bob-the-Oblivious blindly bludgeons one of the snails to death as he is viciously eaten from behind
this proves to be thorougly fatal...
* Bob-the-Oblivious dies confused
<Lxndr> The remaining piranha snail then proceeds to eat all three crawdads, and then its partner, as we fade to black, romantic music playing softly.
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<Lxndr> Thus ends this episode of Dawson's Creeks and Crawdads
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I don't know if there's much else to say...  It's pretty simplistic...

Thomas

To be specific, what was run was my recreation of Creeks and Crawdads using a very different ruleset that came to me in a dream.  This was my first time taking it out in the field, and I'm glad I did.  The incredible deadliness of that last encounter was quite honestly a result of me tinkering with numbers - I plan on eventually writing a monster manual for the C&C game, which will also be free online.

Anyway, I'm glad this happened, because the "Impact System" (hey, that's what the dream called it, and I have no better name) is going to be used in, oddly enough, my dream game (yeah, everyone has one).  For those unable or unwilling to read through the rules, here's a simple description:

[list=1]
[*]Get a number of six-sided dice equal to your appropriate score.
[*]Roll them.  Fives and sixes are successes.
[*]If you get at least one six, you may choose to reroll your dice.  Successes are cumulative, as long as you get at least one, and you may reroll as long as you keep getting sixes. However, if you ever get no successes, you lose everything you accumulated.
[/list:o]

In the creeks and crawdads version of Impact, extra successes generally mean nothing in particular, which seems to fit (though in combat it effects "damage").  But difficulty levels for crawdads rapidly spiral higher and higher - it starts at two for normal tasks, and adds one as it become more complicated and/or original.

Anyway, for a beer-and-pretzels game, I think it worked out great, plus I got to exercise the basic die mechanic to boot.  I had fun, and thanks to all who played.

I still advocate that since crawdads have no self control (they don't even know what it is) they have to continue rerolling until they can't (all successes are 5's) or they fail (no successes).  But that's because its funny.

Again, i do approve of the system, i think it works rather well...

Thomas

I agree with tom here in that you should keep rolling. its just funnier, plus well... since these guys aren't braniacs, they would keep flogging the dead horse, so to speak.

I finally hacked out some odds for the die mechanics, and I just want to say:  wow.

The power quickly and rapidly rises, starting at an average of 0.4 successes on a roll of one die (including re-rolls) to an average of six successes once you reach six dice.  Seven dice is eight, and so on.  I didn't fully grasp the incredible power that each additional die added to the mix.  I do now.

I'm really encouraged by that.  It really will handle the next application of the Impact System quite handily.

Oh yes, and the reason I'm not in favor of "reroll until you stall" mechanics is that it could be quite a hassle if playing the game in real life, where rolling dice over and over is a bit more annoying than doing it online.  That said, I love the attitude.