The Apprentices: COMPLETE (Epilogue now posted)

[thinkslogically]

Ok folks, here’s a game I’ve been spending a bit of time on over the last few days (got a bit carried away to be honest, but hey ho). I’ve never run a game before, and I want to try a couple of different things to some of the games on here already, so this is very much a trial run! It might not work perfectly, but I think the basics should be fairly sound (I hope!).

The Story


Nestled in the foothills of a vast mountain range is the village of Smallhope, an idyllic refuge for the young and elderly goblins of their clan. It is also where young goblins are trained to become warriors before beginning their service in the warcamp. Early one spring morning, the chief military trainer, ‘Good-at Punching’ gathers the eldest apprentices for an announcement.

Players

1. Wears a Coat - Tank (Jacon)
2. Dies in Water - Shadow (LicentiousDey)
3. SmellstheGround - Scout (Taberah)
4. ImaLamp - Scout (DesperateFool)



“Right you lot, listen up. You’ve been with us nearly 2 years now, learning how to survive in the wild and become true goblin warriors any clan would be proud of. Now, as you know, you all have to complete a final test to prove you are ready to join the warcamp, which is usually something like bringing back 10 redcap hats, or 20 wolf pelts… Well, this year it’s going to work a little differently. Seems an …unfortunate turn of events has left our teller here with a job needing done, and you crowd are going to do it. Apparently a bugbear came by the village yesterday offering to trade in rare antiquities, and it would appear our Didn’t-See-That-Coming got the rough end of the deal. Suffice it to say that the bugbear now has a SmallHope clan amulet in his possession, and Didn’t-See-That-Coming got a bag of explosive runes. Course, she thought they were ancient dwarven relics, and now her shack's half burned down so I’m sure you can understand her desire to set things straight with this guy. Long story short, track him down and get that amulet back.”

“You’ll need to prepare before you leave, so make sure you check out the village for supplies and to gather any information you need before heading into the wilds. You can pick up your standard equipment from inside the training hall.”

Anyway, off you go. If you’re successful, you can join the warcamp next season. If not, well… goblins have a high birth rate – I’m sure you’ll be replaced soon enough.”

[thinkslogically]

Rules & Sign-Ups Info

Stats & Abilities
As usual the party is a group of goblins with the following basic stats:

HP: 5/5
Att: 1
Def: 1

In addition to those however, you can choose an ability from the following selection:

Scout: +1 movt per turn
Tank: +1 def / +1 HP
Shadow: Increases chances of sneaking successfully.


Combat
Combat follows the normal rules where Damage = Attack – Defense, but with a chance for critical hits / double hits depending on your in-game choices.

Movement
Normal = 2 turns to move to an unexplored space, 1 turn to move to an explored space
Scout = 1 turn to move to an unexplored space, or can move through 2 explored spaces
Entering an unexplored space will end the turn.
Sneaking = A special type of movement, which increases the players chance of remaining undetected. This can be used either as a major action or movement (so it is possible to sneak into a new area, or attack while sneaking for example). Success is not guaranteed.

Actions
You may use one major action or two minor actions per turn. Talking is usually free unless you’re having a lengthy conversation (at my discretion!).
Searching: Players may choose to search an area as a major action. Your degree of success is determined largely by the dice. If you fail in a search, you can retry. If you are successful however you cannot search the same place again to ‘upgrade’ your result.
Attacking: Major action. Will end the turn.
 
Inventory
This is where everything you own goes. For the purposes of this game it is infinitely large, weighs nothing and even has a handy easy-access compartment to store your weapon in when you’re not actually sticking something with the pointy end of it (I’ll probably not draw weapons on your goblins for the first week or so while I get used to running the thing).

Sign ups
Please be aware that this is a TRIAL game to test the mechanics, and is therefore subject to rule changes as we go along if things are starting to look really unbalanced at any point, so you may need a bit of patience as we go. For my part I promise not to abandon this game for anything other than a catastrophic event and will try and get updates out every 1-2 days through the week. Hopefully it’ll all go smoothly!

Updates will be around 8pm BST every day unless I let you know it's a skip day.

[ArcticTornado]

Sounds cool, can I point out a couple of things?

Creepy sounds really... unappealing, you should probably change the name. Also it might be nice to have an idea of how much it improves your chances of sneaking.

Taking two turns to move to an unexplored space sounds kind of annoying, does that mean people will have to do nothing for a turn while they wait? Maybe the scout benefit could be entering an unexplored space still allows them a conditioned action instead?

Other than that, sounds cool, but I just signed up to another game so it's only fair I sit this one out.

[EvilCoatrack]

Sounds like it could be interesting, I'll put my name in the raffle.


Questions Directions
(color code #FF4000)
Scout!

[thinkslogically]

Those are good points, cheers I've changed 'creepy' to 'shadow', hopefully that's a bit cooler! And I like your idea for scouting too.

The idea behind this is that people are meant to track this thing down, so making it take 2 turns to explore new areas was basically to discourage folk from just charging off and finishing the game randomly / accidentally. I'll try it this way for now, and if everyone hates it we can always change it halfway through. Good old test games

Any and all suggestions on the rules are more than welcome, now and as we go!

EDIT - meant to say, if you want to choose 2 colours for your goblins (main colour / ears colour) that's absolutely fine too.

[Taberah]

I'll enter the raffle too.

Smells the ground
(color code #0040FF)
Couldn't think of a better name

EvilCoatrack, Hope ya don't mind but I want to be a scout too.
Sign me up for scout.

[kelten]

Name: Bad Odds
Color: Black
Type: Shadow!

[LicentiousDey]

Name: Dies in Water
Color: FF4000
Type: Shadow

[Donnigan]

Name: NotTooSmart
Color: #008000
Type: Tank

[Silentobserver]

Name:Boot To The Head
Color: #800080
Type: Tank

Sure, why not. I suck at raffle-winning, though.

[Jacon]

Goblin name: Wears A Coat
Tank
Brown

[RandomMerc]

Might as well...
Murders-In-Cold-Blood
Color: black (000000)
Calling: Shadow, or Tank if there are none chosen randomly.

The Minmaxer inside me is crying for tank though. May switch later.

[WorstCase]

Breaks a Mirror
Color: #FFBF40 (light orange)
Ability: Scout

[m0rtimer]

Not joining, but wishing you the best of luck on your first game

[thinkslogically]

Cheers mort! I fully expect it will need some work to iron out the creases but we'll see what happens

[thatguy]

Name: That goblin
Color: Blue #4000ff
Type: Tank

[notimportant]

I'm liking the graphics and story, but I have too much gaming to do as it is to join the players. But I'll join the well-wishers!

[thinkslogically]

Cheers guys I'm looking forward to it! This is all entirely because I drew a sprite that was too cute not to use and I got totally carried away from there... Hope it comes up in the game now...

[arles]

I hope I can join since I have only played TLDD =P

Name: "Brings the Fire"
Color: skin: Red - #FF0000, ears: Darkred - #960000
Type: TANK

Something like this would be cool

[Zakiel]

Hey, I'll try =D o/

Name: Disappears Mysteriously
Color: Black #000000. If it is taken, blue #0080BF, and if that's also taken, white #FFFFFF.
Ability: Scout

[DesperateFool]

I could join.

Name: ImaLamp
Type: Scout
Color: Dark Green #004000


I am awesome o.o

[RandomMerc]

Question: Is friendly fire allowed.

Second Question: If I hide, will my allies still see where I am

Third Question: If I hide, and enimies cannot see me, do I get a bonus for backstabbing them?

[ThinkingOfNames]

Breaks-a-lots-of-Teeth (Teeth for short.)
Colors:Body:FFBF40 & ears:FFBF80
Type Gonna go with Tank since so many are going for scout.

[thinkslogically]

Question: Is friendly fire allowed.

Second Question: If I hide, will my allies still see where I am

Third Question: If I hide, and enimies cannot see me, do I get a bonus for backstabbing them?

1. Hadn't thought of that... It won't happen accidentally, but I suppose if you wanted to lop off a chunk of one of your mates that would be up to you.
2. Yes, Goblin ESP will mean they know where you are even if you are successfully hidden.
3. Yes, if your hiding is successful then you will get an attack bonus.

Since there's already so much interest in this, I'm going to close the sign-ups a day early and make the deadline 9pm (BST) tonight.

[ArcticTornado]

Only Spares One color=#400000
Male
Shadow

Sure, I'll throw my name in, since the other game is a falahris special.