Tag Archives: mummy’s mask

Well, we’ve finished our first chapter of Paizo’s Mummy’s Mask Adventure Path using the Dungeon World rules!   It’s going very well.

The DW rules are super simple but are very interesting in that they are player driven (the players make all the rolls) and in that they allow for more than just success and failure, but partial success/success at a cost. This has resulted in meaningful decisionmaking in combat – ironically much more meaningful than in Pathfinder, which despite all the options is usually reduced to “who do I unload my full attack on… roll roll roll.” Hit points and damage don’t go up much at all with level so single rolls plus more normative hp = very fast action.

While Dungeon World purists might scoff at the notion of using a written adventure with DW (no really, some do) – we like it.  An adventure, and a defined game world like Golarion, keeps the factor of exploration in the game.  Without that, when you’re just “making it all up as you go” – IMO it degenerates quickly into wish fulfillment and to be honest, most peoples’ off the cuff ideas a) aren’t that good and b) get repetitive quick.  Mummy’s Mask is a good one – it’s “tombs are here, want to explore them?” and then a metaplot that unfolds as other folks take actions.  If I want to directly control what happens with the game world, I’ll be the GM, thanks.

And the GM is doing a great job of melding the concept of Fronts (player initiated action) with the adventure.  So the adventure as written was apparently with the Scorched Hand as primary opponents and the Forgotten Pharaoh stuff just color and “stuff the bad guys want.”  But given our backstories and interests, instead we became fast friends with the Hand – partially through Khaled wanting to seduce Velriana, but also because there’s actually no reason given as to why you should oppose them.  “They want to go explore a temple sacred to their faith!  And she’s kind of a bitch!” Uh, OK.  My response was “sure, we’ll help you!” It wasn’t until we learned the Forgotten Pharaoh stuff was in there did we even have a reason to be interested in the Erudite Eye.  And then it was only because Murdus has declared himself the new incarnation of the Fiend Pharaoh, and that he has a twin sister who also thinks that.  So Hetshepsut his sister became the antagonist instead.  It feelsd perfectly organic and tied to our characters, while having plenty of backing material to provide interesting NPCs, locations, encounters, etc.

The net effect is that we finished Book 1 in 5 sessions rather than the 6 or so it normally takes in Pathfinder – but also nearly half the action in each session was self-generated; not out of the adventure at all.  And the session summaries are longer, because there’s more interesting stuff happening and less math (which tends to get left out of the summaries).

The only problem is that the pace of leveling was too fast.  In Dungeon World you get to level 10 and then that’s it – it’s built around weird old AD&D 1e tropes, so you retire your character or do bizarre “you forgot your powers” dual-classing or whatnot. That’s not exactly congruent with a long story campaign modern style.  So once we got to about level 4-5 just in book 1, we discussed the problem and Paul our GM said “OK, just double the XP needed to level.”  That seems to have put us on a good trajectory, though we do have 5 more chapters to go so we’ll see.

The lack of rules texture hasn’t been a problem yet, mainly because we all have cool Moves, so the limited set of core Moves doesn’t bother us (and the fact that since it’s fiction-first, you don’t have to be worrying about whether there’s a Move for something, you just have good ideas and go with them, and it’s the GM’s job to tell you if you need to roll something or not). It does sometimes get hard to figure out more interesting “partial success” options for the 7-9 rolls especially because they happen a lot (on 2d6 that’s the average result) – seems like a good opportunity to sell us some tables or a card deck or something!  “My third partial on a Volley in a roll… Oh I don’t know let’s liven it up with a random option!”

So far, it’s two thumbs up for the combination!  I think the AP might be a little… trying… under the full-crunch ruleset. But with the DW rules, it’s moving at a great pace and it’s a lot easier to hit our desired mix of fight/talk/explore when you’re not constrained to invest 2+ hours every time there’s a fight.

So we’re happily rolling forward into Chapter 2.  I’ll keep you all updated!  Enjoy the summaries…

Hetshepsut

Fifth Session (16 page pdf) “Race for the Erudite Eye” – Velriana lies abed poisoned and Khaled vows revenge as Murdus races to get to the Erudite Eye before his sister does so he can claim the dead pharoah’s blessing. But first we have to work our way through the Fiend Folio… Before the climactic showdown!

First I go trade in our proceeds from the grey-market selloff of our tomb goods for a brace of healing potions and similar.  And I go buy a rapier, explaining to the shopkeeper that “I need to kill a man.”

We make our way to the Erudite Eye, and are ambushed by Hetshepsut’s well-oiled henchmen along the way. When we finally get to the tomb Usif uses a guiding flame spell so that we can skip the side rooms and follow in their tracks.  We fight through some trash mobs (including caryatid columns) deeper into the complex.  I leave doors re-locked behind us to prevent their easy escape.

We find evidence that some necromancer got here before any of us and got the mask and staff, or similar items, with the spirit of Hakotep, the guy who killed the Fiend Pharoah.  That’s depressing as that’s what we’re looking for.  But then we come across Hetshepsut, her cold lizard (the bane of Usif’s life), Azaz, and Khelru. Luckily Usif used a ritual-friendly room we’d come across to summon a fire elemental!

We engage with them and I see my quarry Azaz.  But simple death, that’s too good for a traitor.  Read on and find out who lives and who dies (it’s about fifty-fifty) in the final confrontation.

Velriana

Fourth Session (17 page pdf) “Raid on Gaunt Cadaver” – The group goes to kill a rogue necromancer and his Frankenstein monster. Then they conduct a super ghetto “Ocean’s 11” sting on the church of Pharasma.  Then their mass sexytime is interrupted by Murdus’ sister!

First we meet some freaks on the streets of the necropolis who are wearing funerary masks.  They tell us they are “funerary mask enthusiasts” and are called the Forgotten Pharoahs.  Murdus declares “they’re coming right at me!” and kills them with basically no provocation.  But we back his story.

Our raid on Gaunt Cadaver’s place goes well – we insert in over the roof and discover he has an irate undead and/or flesh golem trapped in the courtyard.  So we let it into the villa and it does a lot of our killing for us.  We have to face the dark folk necromancer but since they can only see in the dark I “hide in light” and give him a good backstabbing. Mistress Unwrapped Harmony is very thankful and gives us gold funerary cones and crappy food.

Then it’s a bit more Keystone Kops than Ocean’s 11 as we break into the temple.  Denat tries to start a street party as a distraction and fails twice, getting chased off the first time and fined by the local guards the second. I get into the temple’s storage room with the room assignment chits with that stupid doru div Imanish providing cover but he’s not doing well either, his illusions and suggestions aren’t going over big.

But finally the other party members, wearing Forgotten Pharoah getups, cause a commotion and lead the guards on a merry chase around the temple. This distracts the guards interrogating our illusionary guard stand-in and they run off.  To cover it up I smear some mumia (mummy drugs, don’t ask) on the unconscious real guard’s upper lip and skedaddle, having switched the tokens.  Ideally they’ll think he’s acting weird because he was stoned out of his gourd.

Khaled finally hooks up with Velriana the Taldan noblewoman.  Murdus makes do with her “daddy issues” bodyguard and Denat somehow manages to seduce an entire adventuring band.  Usif tries to go do something useful but he gets caught by Murdus’ evil sister Hetshepsut, who then comes and has her Cupid-dressed goons kick down our inn doors. We murder them and get set to move on to her when she summons some crazy dark whirlwind demon thing that slurps people up like milkshakes and seems mostly invincible. We only get our bacon saved by some clerical visions and summoning of ki-rin (the tornado demons’ natural enemy).

But meantime, the sorcerer Azaz turns out to be a traitor! He’s a member of the Scorched Hand, mostly notable for having a crush on Khelru that makes him easy to manipulate.  But he sends his greensting scorpion familiar to sting Velriana!  I kill it but she’s poisoned; I go for him but he charms Khelru and escapes with Hetshepsut. Now we need to beat them to the Erudite Eye – and murder them all of course.

Azaz

Khelru

Idorii

Unwrapped Harmony

Third Session (18 page pdf) “House of Pentheru” – First, Khaled makes the group some new friends.  Then it’s into a ruined house, where everyone nearly loses their head.  Then Murdus makes us another friend – an even more unsavory one.

First, Khaled gets a solo scene as he makes friends with some dark folk and their leader. Mistress Unwrapped Harmony, whose name becomes “Unchained Melody” in my head .1 seconds after the DM says it, has some knowledge of the necropolis and fills me in on a bunch of power groups we didn’t even know existed.  She offers us intel and money to go whack a rogue dark folk necromancer.  Kill a monster *and* get paid for it?  That’s like free money! I agree happily.

Then we go into the ruins of the House of Pentheru and loot it.  There’s a bunch of head-themed problems – vargouilles, screaming skulls, et al. Oh, and an adherer – this adventure is definitely in love with the AD&D 1e Fiend Folio, there’s a lot of critters from it.

Finally we confront a disembodied voice, which I want to kill but Murdus insists is the Pharasmin priestess’ little invisible psychopomp bird – until it’s revealed to be this bad boy…
Imanish, a doru div!  It’s an evil disembodied floating head with bestial visage and six horns, invisible most of the time, and it wants secrets.  In an unsettling move, Murdus makes friends with it and promises it many secrets to come along with us.

As we leave the necropolis, we come across our allies the Scorched Hand and concoct a plan for a little B&E in the temple to Pharasma to make sure we get a crack at the Temple of the Erudite Eye…