#(Crucible 0.7.5) Zelda Test OneShot Infos & Feedback
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There we go, so :
DM (me) : I consider myself a somewhat seasoned DM, but more accostumed to narrative/ruleslight systems, I've however been a player in D&D campaigns for years now, plus a couple of exoeriences in some other systems
Players : All of them are also experienced players, and some more Experienced DMs than me, but there was no ttrpg/vtt newcomer
Notable Gameplay Modules : Item Piles for handling currency, interactive chests and a single merchant, plus sequencer for sound and visuals automation, but otherwise a pretty much vanilla foundry v13 experience (not counting dice so nice of course)
Notable Houserules :
Players had custom setting inspired lineages, I'll detail their skills because it affected balance, Non-combat gameplay was pretty much handwaved by roleplay rather than using skillChecks due to personnal DMing style (and the current stage of crucible concerning this part of the game), Players were able to recover between encounters except for a section of the dungeon deemed unproper for rest (to test hazards and attrition), The Goron player was allowed an infinite amount of Bombs (Blast Flasks) to compensate for projectile weapons not tracking ammo, but was limited to three per battle, that needed to be equiped
Players started at level 2 and were allowed to level up to 3 and upgrade their weapons to fine during adventure
Player Builds :
Zora Player : Passive lineage talent was roleplay only, being able to swim at full stride and breath under water, Heroic Lineage Talent was an Electric variant of Zealous Smite. The lineage also gave him Zora Fins natural weapons, wich were supposed to be returning throwable weapons, but had to be reworked into natural projectile weapons du to wonky conflicts when adding the "natural" trait. I bring it up despite it very video game-y and understandably not accounted for when thinking of natural weapons, because the conflicting documentation and implementation nonetheless made it difficult to pinpoint what actually is a "legal" natural weapon for the system (If I had to guess, due to leftovers of switching from a type of weapon to a trait)
Glass canon martial built around Offhand Strikes, backstab and Counter Evade with dual short Swords, pretty lethal in pre-session tests, rolled very poorly during session against foes that rolled very high, still managed to contribute decently to encounters but was weakened twice
- Other than the boomerang fins concern, main note from the player was about the Effects Icons displaying the source/talent image instead of the condition icon, wich to him was confusing during playtesting (I disagree with him on the matter because Effects can be checked on the sheet, but sources tends to be forgotten between sessions, During the session the problem never came up by virtue of doing my DM work and describing what happened to the characters). He was however confused at one point and thought he was Grappled instead of Prone
- Not really counting it as feedback but a lot of his skills had to be "repaired" or investigated in the source code to make them behave as expected (like Offhand Strike dealing a double attack but still requiring to be after a normal strike). Considered "normal" due to Crucible being in early stages and all
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Goron Player : Passive was an Unarmored Armor Bonus equal to Toughness, inspired by an Ember Lineage, Heroic talent Was a Roll Movement wich does no damages but rolls Athletics against all targeted ennemies (in a ray) to try and make them prone.
Tank character built fully around Toughness and an Oversized Great Hammer as main weapon, using Heavy Strike and Swipe, Second Breath, Spellmute, and some other Resistance talents, Was Both the Heavy Hitter and the unshakeable Shield of the Group, never got weakened (but still took heavy damage)
Player found a lot of the Crucible ideas clever and interesting but had a few concerns (some probably addressed in the updates I missed and/or adventure dependant) :
- Tank/Toughness builds seeming pretty Overpowered overall, with damages output equivalent to Glass canons but without the Glass Part, (although when discussing we both aknowledged that the current talent tree serves as more of a proof of concept than any final balance)
- The system having a lot of tactical options and the ability to move a lot, but favorizing being as static as possible after the first few rounds to spend as much actions as possible dealing optilized damage (wich was mitigated due to encounters and map designed but still present), Said it would be nice to see more movement centric talents (we discussed a few of the already existing ones), and in general take more advantage of all the granularity options Crucible offers (with weapons, defenses, player noted the rarity of "save" checks, but this was influenced by the type of encounters)
- The Absence of any UI to represent the Weapon Range, wich made Him play at contact despite having a 3ft range Weapon
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Kokkiri player : Had a Fairy, wich behaved pretty much as D&D esque Dancing light, without actual presence on the field or initiative. Could use a Movement action to move the fairy within a certain range, or to inflict the Exposed condition for one round ( "Hey ! Listen !"). Heroic talent made him invisible for three rounds.
Ranged "Cleric" Build Utilizing primarily the Ray Gesture with Life and Kinesis (had the Shadow rune for morale damage but didn't use it during the adventure). Relied on a slingshot as secondary weapon, never went to contact and got hit only Once (but was almost instantly weakened that one time, after leveling up)
- Player Found it difficult to aim his rays, as tokens were not circle portraits, and would have liked some indication on actor borders/"hitboxes" while placing templates. Also would find neat the ability to make curve movements on the fly (players and I where sometime a little confused on the movement/action cost UI during drag and drop)
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Pictured : our Heroes (in a Test Scene that was used to test the perspective and allow them to familiarize with the Targeting/Automation
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Encounter 1 (under spoiler in case I ever share / rerun this adventure in anyway, maps and tokens designed by me brain and drawn by me right hand)
||The Skeleton Guard
Ennemies : 4 level 1 normal Stalfos (spearmen skeletons lifted directly from the playtest 3rd day encounter)
Reverse Ambush type scenario : Player were allowed to place themselves however they want behind the bushes (or on the main path if they do not wish to use the element of surprise) Two stalfos are guarding the Temple, while two others are trying to open the door that separated them from the rest of the squadron. They All start with the Unaware action. The rightmost Outdoor Stalfos has a custom alert horn item and will spend it's first available action to use it, ending the unaware condition on the whole map if not stopped early enough)
Bushes are difficult terrain (houseruled as a *2 to movement cost using regions)
Encounter turned out well balanced, if surprisingly dangerous, depending a lot on player approach for the outcome. Ultimately served as a neat "fair" figth to set expectations and a feeling for the system's natural flow. Leg Sweep Was Especially Hurtful to the Goron player due to action cost of most of his talents, but forced him to rely on secondary options (his bombs. He used his bombs because that was more efficient than cancelling the prone condition). As a DM, feel like it could have dragged on a bit too much if I played the enemies more "efficiently", would probably have made them minions for the pacing of the adventure if they didn't serve as a "Control" fight for the purposes of testing the system)||
I do note that I while the automatic scaling of the ennemies was a blessing, a little more indications on how to set the threat level for the desired difficulty would have been welcomed, while the documentation leads to a "deadly" encounter everytime if followed as written
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(wich is perfectly fine for most encounters, but I like to set the difficulty according to importance/pacing)
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Encounter 2
||"NOT THAT LEVEEEEeeeeer"
Ennemies : Two level 1/2 Stalfos (same build)
Attrition type scenario : After (as intended) failing at a puzzle due to misleading indications from an NPC, Players fall through a trap door and suffer a Bluedgeoning Hazard (5) when hitting the water (with the option to give banes to the Hazard according to roleplay actions to mitigate the fall), the Heavy Current takes them to the near Shore, and they must make their way back to the surface. Recover action is impossible throughout the whole section due to temperature, noise, ect... and a couple more challenges await them (A piercing Hazard 15 if they fail to clear the Spikes pit, but they Used Bombs to circumvent it) to access an Elevator Teleporter.
Stalfos where underleveled and suffered the Exhausted Condition due to their own fall earlier, the main difficulty of the fight was the darkness, and managing the delay action to Displace the Fairy before attacking while the ennemies could see brigth as day
A perfectly quick encounter more for ambience than actual threat, but also a very conservative attempt to test Attrition despite Crucible not really supporting it as of now (at least in 0.7.5)||
Most painfull here was that players couldn't use the delay action by themselves due to permission/bugs, but i've seen that this was currently worked on
Encounter 3
||"Ganon Warlords, Marto & Enklhum"
Ennemies : Level 2 eltite Anvil and Hammer from the playtest, reskinned as a Darknut and an Iron Knuckle but not modified
Mini Boss Duel Scenario : As soon as I read about Anvil and Hammer in the playtest I knew they were DESTINED to feature in an Ornstein and Smough Boss Battle, and they played their part parfectly. The Malice Magic Circle in the center was an ominous Corruption Hazard to Morale if touched, allowing Marto & Enkhlum to setup a Hammer Toss at the start of the Battle||
No Notes, clearly the Highlight of the One Shot, Crucible did Good.
It's After this point that players where given a Full Recover for plot reasons, leveled up and where allowed to upgrade weapons to Fine (for the same plot reasons)
Encounter 4
||"corrosive parasite, Apex Mothula"
**Ennemies: ** Level 4 Boss Winged Terror Adult Drake (Size 8)
Tentative Puzzle Boss Scenario : Boss was willingly overleveled but spent most of his turns going to player contact 1ft above the ground, acid spraying then flying really high while rellying on Elusive Flight to avoid Disengagement Attacks and staying away from the Martials.
Nutritious Ooze Tanks where scattered around the field to force it to land and delay actions, but required for a player to go near them and spend a Movement action to activate them.
When near death, The Boss then started using it's movement for +6 boons swooping strikes||
The idea was cool and the puzzle element clearly engaged the players, but the poor thing was butchered in a few rounds thanks to some pretty high slingshot rolls, and by virtue of being a Single Big Ennemy against 3 players with full awareness of action economy, could have probably overleved it even more, given it a few more talents to spice it up, some way to heal or got rid of the puzzle part, but I tried to use Crucible Options "as presented", and other encounters already did plenty for challenging life-or-death fights