A player's view of Kakabad

In lieu of a post about contemporary gaming, what with the sunny weather, afternoons in the pub, and the odd barbecue - and for anyone not in the UK, we get so few really sunny days these must be seized upon - I thought I'd dig out some old player maps and let you see how one of my players interpreted our journey across Kakabad in pursuit of the Crown of Kings.

  Khare

The Baklands

Mampang

Sorcery! 2 (Inkle iOS app): I Khare more

Last year I bought Inkle's first Sorcery! app, which turned out to be a reasonably faithful adaptation of The Shamutanti Hills gamebook. There were a few flourishes here and there that, as far as I can remember, were not in the gamebooks (for example, the motivation for the goblin activity is fleshed out), but aside from the gorgeous map and the nifty, but straightforward mechanics, this was The Shamutanti Hills. If you liked the gamebook, you'd like this. But if not, this would fail to satisfy for similar reasons (unless you have something against books as physical object, but then...).

Sorcery! 2, based on Khare: Cityport of Traps, is, however, a totally different beast - though it wears the same skin. My memory of gamebook Khare is of a city that defies reason, filled with fantastical encounters (but little else) in which Bizarre Search Behaviour (as described by Murray of Turn to 400) is the order of the day. And it is fun, for sure, and very 'Fighting Fantasy', but as is the case for many of the gamebooks the only way to collect the information necessary to make meaningful choices is to die. YOUR adventure ends here. 

In the Inkle app, Khare feels like it has some real life to it. Part of this is down to the technical possibilities presented in by an app that would be impossible in a gamebook; it is not so difficult for later 'sections' to be subtly (or not so subtly) tailored in light of previous choices - certainly without doubling or trebling the 'section' and page count of the equivalent physical book. But Khare has also grown. What appeared, in the gamebook, to be disconnected encounters have grown into the spaces around them, producing meaningfully interlinked choices. But there is also more to Khare - political intrigue and underground plots practically beg YOU to investigate. It feels much more like a sandbox setting.

All of this is managed by an automated clue 'inventory'. This records bullet points of information that you gather through your searches and conversations. On the subject of the latter, at various points in the game you have the option to play 'swindlestones' (liar's dice) against a number of different NPCs. While you can try to use this as a way to make some gold, its true usefulness comes in the conversations that you have with the NPCs as you bluff and bet. Different bets produce different dialogue options, meaning that sometimes you just have to bluff big (and likely get called) if you want to ask a particularly probing question. This is a really good mechanic, introducing risk and reward (and a degree of transparency about both) into the information game. 

As far as the other mechanics go, swordplay is still, as it was in the first Sorcery! app, a 'blind auction', in which you try to use just more of your strength than the enemy, or none at all if you suspect that he will 'bid' higher. While there are some clues as to what the enemy will do each round in the text description, it still feels pretty formulaic - thought it allows for some player choice, the meaninfulness of these choices is minimal, once you have your PC settled into a strike-block rhythm. It is certainly appears to be more interactive than 2d6+SKILL, but I feel that adding a couple of choices to modify this roll (as in Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e) would have produced more genuine choice into the fights. Each fight can be endlessly refought until you have achieved a level of STAMINA loss with which you are happy, which feels a bit 'fingers in the page' to me. Nevertheless, I have used it...

The sorcery mechanic has been revamped across both apps. If I remember right, in Sorcery! it involved a mildly annoying mini-game in which you lined up the three letters of the spell. This was nothing more than a time-sink hurdle for the player - you would line the letters up eventually, and it didn't matter how long it took. Well, it didn't matter for YOU - as in your PC - but it mattered to you, the player. This was a mild example of what I was talking about with regards to the consequences of failure in RPGs and computer games. The new version retains the same visual charm - the letters being written in the stars - but the mini-game is gone. Just tap out S-U-S and burn on point of STAMINA to work out if Steve Jackson has set a trap for you. That really is the most important spell any adventurer on Titan can learn!

I was really impressed with Sorcery! 2. It looks fantastic, plays smoothly, and the new material adds extra life to the city, though I'm still in two minds as to whether the extra stuff included by Inkle dilutes the Titanesque. Regardless, I do wish that I had played this before running the Khare section of the AFF2e Crown of Kings campaign. I guess that is the highest praise that can be given by a GM! 

A Town Called Malice

Slangg of Khare. Son of Asrel, Goddess of Love and Beauty, Slanng choose Malice as his domain. In Khare, his is one of the two most prominent temples (the other is the largely disused Temple of Courga), within which he is depicted as a grossly fat man with the forked tongue of a snake (Encyclopaedia Titannica, 283AC). 

In the course of our most recent session, Cramer the Rogue became a devotee of the Spiteful God. 

With one line of the Gate Spell obtained, the party went directly to the Temple of Slangg, arriving just as the evening service was ending. There, the High Priest presented them with a riddle. If one of them could answer the riddle correctly, Slangg – through his mouthpiece in Khare, the High Priest – would grant them one boon. However, in doing so they would gamble their soul. Answer incorrectly and they would become a devotee of Slangg. Mopsy the Knight wasn’t about to risk his virtue, so Cramer stepped up to answer the riddle. I think everyone was tired (in real life as well as in the game world). Cramer put forward an answer, the High Priest laughed, and in a voice that was not quite his own, Cramer announced that he was now an ardent worshipper of Slangg. The High Priest smiled, and invited another member of the party to try again during the dawn service the following day.

There was some discussion over just what was included in the domain of a God of Malice, and how that would differ from the portfolios of other Evil gods, given that Cramer would now have to embody the ‘virtues’ of his god while remaining a playable character. Cramer was already a ruthless bastard, so adding a pinch of malice and spite to the mix shouldn’t be too hard… 

The party retired to the Wayfarer’s Rest, a dockside tavern. Cramer blanched at the prices demanded – 4GP for a bed, 4GP for a meal – and sat outside to eat one of the pies given to the party by the grateful Gnomes. When he returned, he found Ho Lee the Sorcerer and Mopsy matching a group of drunk sailors drink for drink. The sailors poured some of their drink on the floor of the tavern, and told the mournful story of their shipmate, who had kissed a God and been rewarded with death. With a little probing, the party were able to learn something of the Temple of Courga, Goddess of Grace. Asking about the Hidden Nobles, the sailors told them that they had heard that all the Hidden Lords were undead. 

It was good, strong grog that the sailors were buying the PCs, but it was worth it as slaving is obviously very good business – see the prices of the Wayfarer’s Rest. As the SLAVERS drew their coshes, the party all had to Test Their Luck. Which the all passed, leaving the sailors facing three clear eyed and well-armed Adventurers! 

Mopsy, ever chivalric, decided that he wouldn’t kill essentially unarmed men, however wicked their intent, and used his shield to keep the two that came at him at bay. Cramer, on the other hand, drew her sword and began slashing away at the two slavers that closed in on him. Ho Lee scarpered, scrambling over tables, kicking over stools, slipping amongst the crowd, as a weasel faced sailor chased him down. Pulling a bamboo flute from the sleeves of his robe, Ho Lee cast JIG, making the leader of the gang (fighting Mopsy) dance to the Sailors’ Hornpipe. Co-incidentally, that slaver, possessed of a mouth filled with broken teeth, rolled a double one in the first round, sending his cosh spinning away under the tables. So now he was dancing involuntarily, was unarmed, and trying to menace a knight! Things weren’t going to go well for these thugs, were they? 

The tavern punters watched amused, while the squat, bald, scarred barman picked up his club, ready to break up the fight. 

Mopsy stayed on the defensive, but within three rounds Cramer had spilled the innards of one of the slavers all over the floor of the tavern, and the gang lost the stomach for the fight. But not before the weasel faced thug (and a bunch of other people) lost the contents of their stomachs. Ho Lee, nearly cornered by the thug, cast NIF. With stink oozing from his pores, and lacking nose plugs, Ho Lee was sick over the slaver, who projectile vomited in return, sparking a chain reaction among the nearby punters. 

The barman was unperturbed by the violence but none too pleased with the mess. Ho Lee and his bamboo flute provided free entertainment for the rest of the evening in recompense. 

The next morning Ho Lee was able to successfully answer the riddle, and the High Priest told them that he had heard that one of the Hidden Nobles, who had been a wealthy merchant, had divested himself of all his riches and had taken to living in Beggartown to avoid the attention of his enemies. Asking about graveyards in Khare, the party were told that only the wealthiest or most important citizens of Khare are buried - most bodies are dropped in the Jibaji River and float out of town. Deciding to check out the cemetery, the party skirted the RED EYE ghetto and passed through a market… 

Well, they eventually passed though the market, but only after extensive trading. The party sold Mopsy’s warhorse, Ed, along with a MANTICORE mane and the uncut gems found in the Shamutanti Hills. I decided that, in addition to the mundane traders, there was also a small shop, run by an ELVIN, selling basic magic items and components. Much perusing of equipment lists later and the PCs headed off to the cemetery where they found the mausoleum of Shinva, Lord of Khare. It seems that the hidden aspect of being a Lord of Khare is irrelevant once you are dead. 

Descending into the depths, the party were confronted by a DEATHWRAITH, an incorporeal, dagger wielding apparition. Mopsy adopted his now hardwired defensive stance, but the Deathwraith’s dagger passed through his shield and his armour, leaving a bloodless wound on his soul. Ho Lee, quickly realised what is going on and blasted away with the ZAP spell. Boy, is that spell powerful – 3d6 points of STAMINA damage! Especially when you forget to apply the Deathwraith’s resistance to magic. Nevertheless, the Deathwraith was doomed – Ho Lee had the STAMINA points he would have needed to frazzle the Deathwraith regardless of my error in refereeing. 

The ghostly assassin defeated, the party were then greeted by a second apparition, this time of Lord Shinva. After his death he had been trapped, compelled to serve as undead Lord of Khare, ‘protected’ by the Deathwraith. The party learned that the walls of Khare were not only magical, but were possessed of some kind of intelligence. The walls were Khare. Released from his duty, Shinva was now able to finally pass into the afterlife, but before he did he taught the party the third line of the Gate Spell. And that is where we left things for the evening. 

To be played over the closing credits: