After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg - Mythras edition

Long time no see, dear readers! But it was a smaller pause than my previous one, right?

I've been playing and running games, but not posting much. But now I want to tell you about the game I joined recently. It's happening online due to us being in two different countries, so we're using Foundry.

First, are you familiar with the Road to Monsterberg campaign?

If yes, skip ahead. If not...you really should go and acquaint yourself. 

 For those hesitating, it's a campaign set in historical, 15th century Silesia (Poland). And I kinda doubt anyone who dislikes historical games reads this blog...

So here's a link to the adventure (first of three parts).

However, the game we're playing uses the Mythras rules* (by The Design Mechanism) . We have the corebook and that Book of Schemes is allowed as a supplement, and the GM has done a whole lot of work to convert it.

It's really funny how this started. I was on the Discord of Peter Von Danzig/Codex Martialis.

A user on the server turned out to be Bulgarian as well. So I invited him to a Bulgarian Discord.

Turned out, he was already planning to run Road to Monsterberg for Mythras, and online. He just wasn't sure whether he'd be able to find the players.

...about 24 hours later he had a full group and had to turn some people down. We actually have a waiting list!

So with no further ado, here are the PCs.

Jaroslaw, my PC, Czech gentry, staunch Catholic and knight. Has an arms-bearer.

Elias, a Burgher who want to get gentrified (and is actually a woman in disguise), trader.

Vuk, former Serbian outlaw, even more former Ottoman slave. Might or might not be a secret pagan.

Marzena, a Serbian warrior woman who's been fighting the Ottomans before. She gets a pass for being a wild one.

Esthel, Frenchwoman, wandering entertainer. 

***

We started the game with being admitted to the city. Which ain't automatic.

I looked at the guards and didn't even need to remind the Ref that I've got an Ehren of 77 (divide by two for the number in the original system, but it's in the low numbers for a noble, despite me being gentry). My armsbearer goes with me (I have his name written on my character sheet, under "equipment"!), and I guaranteed about Vuk as well. 

He's got Ehren in the single-digit numbers or low, low 10s. Again, this is a d% system... Ehren can be rolled, or assist your rolls.

But hey, since Vuk used to kill Ottomans, he's doing God's work, as far as Jaroslaw is concerned. Yes, despite being a schismatic!

Jaroslaw loves the Catholic faith with all his heart. He's also got NO lore skills related to it, so he's a bit unclear on specifics, and usually refers to the closest priest when needing details.

Actually, most of the party hates Ottomans, as in having the passion "Hate: Ottomans". Hey, we were fighting them...

Then the German wannabe-gentry/wannabe-man, who is affiliated with the Hanza, guaranteed for the two women, and we were in. I also got an invite from the local rulers, forgot the name. 

This is going to come in handy, as I can't attend next session due to work.

The entertainer got us the first memorable moment of the session by claiming she's making a travelling show, and Vuk is the bear (he wears a bear skin as cloak). We just used social standing power we've got to smooth it over...as in, they thought that's outrageous, but didn't want to argue with a knight's travelling companion.

And then they asked us "how was the road", and we went straight for a simulation of the 4 weeks we'd needed to get from Belgrad to the Polish town.

***

First week, we met 10-12 Ottomans on horses. We turned around through the forest.

GM: "everyone roll Stealth".

Me, looking at my 23% Stealth: "OK, I'm going to fail you all...oh wait, I got a 3, that's a crit".

So the knight actually helped the others sneak, as per the rules...having to explain it, I stated that I'm leading the horses with a secure hand to prevent them from making noise.

We avoided a fight, here.

Second week, we're in Buda and we went on to train a bit, teaching each other Polish (and the trader was teaching the French gal some writing). 

Afterwards, we played out a tournament between the PCs to get used to the combat system.

Jaroslaw won, quite expectedly. But it took quite a while (OOC, not IC). The group is getting used to a system that's new to them OOC. 

Next week (or was that the 2nd week, with the tournament later?), our obstacle were Hungarian peasants-cum-brigands. None of us speaks Hungarian.

They're asking us for 6 pfennings a head, we were able to work out.

That's not really that much, but trouble is...we don't actually have that kind of money. I've got 14, and I'm the richest in the party. 

(Well, I've kept enough money for my armsbearer's food and lodging, so I'm actually carrying more, but OOC, we just removed them and agreed Kristian is covered).

We detected that they're hungry, and offered them travelling rations for a couple days. Seeing as how Jaroslaw is on his horse, looks down on them (literally and figuratively) and has just removed his battleaxe's coverings, they wisely decide to take the offer.

Yes, he's using an axe. He's old school that way. 

Also, fun fact, he can use a gun, a crossbow (he has one) and a sword...all worse than he uses spear, axe, or grappling. In the Mythras system, he has those as different Combat Styles: Knightly Arts & Kutna Hora Citizen Training. Gun, crossbow and sword are all in the latter group. The GM said a single style can have up to 3  weapons and a shield.

As I put it, those are for shooting at people that approach Kutna Hora's walls, or defending myself in the street, or after they manage to close up. The rest is what he does on his horse.

Either way, then we had to deal with a storm. We sped up and mostly avoided getting tired. Most avoided getting depressed, too.

Not so Vuk. He's been more and more in the edge, and he's holeric. So at some point the other Serbian, the warrior woman, sees him praying. And she recognizes the words - he's praying to Dazhbog! 

(Did I mention he has only passing knowledge of Polish and Czech, due to "related, but not close" language? He does, and we are playing this out. Yes, he's learning as fast as he can). 

The player of Marzena, however, is a young woman in her 20ies. Which explains what happens, if you ask me...

So Marzena just goes next to him, pushes him in the ribs, and asks "how come you're praying to Dazhbog, man?" (or something to that effect)...

And he very nearly jumped her with fists. Very good roleplaying from the player.

(OOC, he's 46, probably twice her age or nearly so - the generational gap is obvious, and part of it is NOT assuming that you can say anything WITHOUT getting punched in the mouth).

I try to calm them down with authority...and fail the Influence check badly. The trader, however, snaps "his" whip, which startles us all, and allows Esthel an opening to get in and talk him down.

...Which was a good thing, because had he started it after being ordered not to...well, you can guess how Jaroslaw would have reacted. He knew that, and knew Jaroslaw expects obedience.

Yes, I play it to the hilt, and then twist, as they say. No, I don't play J as a modern human. I mean, what's the point? I play one of those everyday.

Amusingly, Vuk's player is more than fine with that. Some of the others are getting a kind of culture shock, however, most of their experience being with D&D...

Importantly, no horses broke feet, and then I made sure to inquire about the humans as well (yes, those are Jaroslaw's priorities, as I'm playing him). Then we spent the night under some trees, and the entertainer...entertained us with song and tale.

Vuk was keeping a bit aside, though. At some point, I went to him, put an arm on his shoulder, and told him "I want no more such performances").

"Ain't gonna happen again, jupan". (Jaroslaw is a milec, but he knows what a jupan means, and he accepts the word without commenting as a close equivalent).

"Good. No more talk about it, then".

And I went back to the others.

Hey, my Polish actually isn't much better than his. I actually got a +5 from the lessons, but that only raised it to 28%: I'm barely past the level of "separate words and very simple phrases", and into "speaking accented with very simple phrases".
Jaroslaw has much, much better command of Czech (of course, native language gets +40 bonus...) and Deutsh (48, close to passing the 50-mark).

On the final week, we got my horses confiscated, for the Polish Crown and against the Ottomans.

The GM wanted to hit me with a big Tenacity loss there, but I pointed out that Jaroslaw is more than willing to lose horses to help the anti-Ottoman fight. So I got to augment Willpower check with his Passion, and only lost a couple points.

So, Jaroslaw took the documents ascertaining that he has to receive 4 horses (2 warhorses and 2 coursers, good-natured...well, as good-natured as warhorses go) from the Polish Crown, or an equivalent amount of money.

***

And then we are back to where we started the session: we had just arrived in the city. Jaroslaw is going to spend the following days without the party, talking to the local rulers.

GM: "You've got any plans?"

Me: "Have they got a marriageable daughter, and what does she look like?"

And that's where we ended it.

 

 

*BTW, Codex Martialis/Stara Szkola is a great system and I'd have been fine playing it with the original system. But it's no secret I like Mythras, and I'm glad that we're using it, because this way the guys I'm playing with are learning the system better.

Who knows, they might start their own campaigns as well, some day?