Well, we finally wrapped it up over the school holiday yesterday. It didn't take long. Sir Waffles was generally unlucky and took a lot of damage from goblin and troll alike. Sir Chicken was generally more effective in combat. The system worked fairly well but my son didn't feel the need to gang up on things until it was a little too late. I wonder if the Tough attribute of the Trolls was too powerful. Essentially a 50% chance to shrug off damage. I also need to do a better job of tracking what dice characters and monsters are on. I did it in my head, which became a tad problematic coming back a week later. Fun was had. I think we need to use some of that treasure to hire some men at arms or a wizard. I'm also wondering if just setting out the whole dungeon is going to break the game or not. Setting it up as discovered didn't seem to add much for my son.
I used Comic Life 3 for the comic. I feel like I am getting a better feel for the interface and tried a few different things such as the curling paper captions. My photographs were all weirdly dark, so I ran them through the auto white balance in gimp. Unfortunately the figures still remained dark so I applied a rotoscope filter to all the images. It makes them a little more interesting. I'm still struggling to find good settings for quick game snapshots so that I am not interrupting game play more than I have to.
Hurrah for Sirs Waffle and Chicken! I like the way the photos turned out, really comic book like (which I guess is the point, duh!, what with it being Comic Life and all).
ReplyDeleteWorking together to defeat the monsters really is key to the knights' survival, even though they are fairly capable on their own, especially against larger creatures. As for Tough, it's interesting you mention that because I was worried I'd toned it down too much for Knights' Quest by making it a 1 in 3 chance of shrugging off injury (5+ on a d6) - I'm glad it wasn't just in our games that it seemed too good.
Would you like a plain text version of Knights' Quest to try out for the next stage of your adventure?
Hi Rab. I generally don't use the artistic filters in comic life because I feel like it can be hard to make out what the pictures are. Miniatures tend to be cartoony all on their own. It worked for this one, but I still haven't found the magic combination. 5+ for tough is what I was going to try in the future. Obviously there is only so much gradation one can do with a d6.
DeleteI'd be happy to test out a plain text version of Knights Quest.
What a great way to present a report. I must try and have another go with Comic Life, it is such a fun program.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael, I remember enjoying your comic book reports. Like anything else, it gets easier the more you do it.
DeleteGreat commentary, but yeah, the figures look like they are covered in black oil. Maybe its a dungeon lighting effect :-)
ReplyDeleteHi SoY. To be honest the goblins are completely unpainted, dark green plastic. The Troll is primed black with a layer of dark green highlight. So they were never going to look like much. The knights were fully painted etc. I usually stay away from the artistic filters as they obscure detail. This time I didn't think there was much detail to see so I went with it.
DeleteNice one and great report. For the photo, I found out it mostly came from the picture filter, otherwise Comic Life is really a good tool
ReplyDeleteThanks Cedric, yeah the filters have to be used selectively I think.
DeleteNah, trolls *should* be tough! Cutting a swathe through weedy goblins isn't very knightly, so the heroes need something a bit more challenging :-) .
ReplyDeleteHi Hugh, Trolls should be tough but it takes the wind out of my 8yr old's sails when he has repeated hits shrugged off. Perhaps the solution would be to have fewer Trolls or a less formidable "big" monster to fight.
DeleteVery enjoyable read bringing back many memories of years of dungeoneering.
ReplyDeleteI've seen many comic-book style reports and I'm still undecided whther I like them or not, some like your own work whilst others fail.
keep the Troll tough - they're meant to be !
Hi Joe, I'm glad you liked it. The comic style is tricky, but I find I prefer it to a photo dump and text of "on turn 1 I did this". Just my personal preference these days. I just think 50% to completely shrug off the attack is a little rough for little 'uns.
DeleteSean, this looks great. The high contrast effect works well given the dungeon tiles are so clean and simple. Congrats to the (aptly named) Sir Chicken and Sir Waffles for utilizing the world's second oldest military tactic. He who runs away, lives to delve another day.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the difficulty level of the trolls, it seems like a good idea to give the bad guys a decent chance of winning once in a while. How 'bout the player losing treasure instead of getting wounded? Or making the players tougher, so they can lose a few rounds once in a while?
Hi TB, thanks. I'm not sure what tweaks Rab has made to the rules. The thing I noticed was as the knights got wounded, and went from a d20 to progressively lower dice, I noticed my son's will breaking. So the old conundrum of being defeated because you feel defeated. I do believe there is something to learn from losing, I must have a PhD in it by now, but it needs to remain fun. Perhaps he just needs a thicker gaming skin. But I do want to press on with this as I think it could take off for us.
DeleteHey Sean, very cool report! I like the layout of the pages and the filters used in the pictures.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ricardo, good to hear from you.
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