(Brutal Quest) Retrieving the Gilded Porcine

I had realized as I was updating my little spreadsheets and blog data that, although I've played Planet 28 and I've had some fun with it, I still had not tried it's fantasy cousin, Brutal Quest.  Brutal Quest's core  seems to be a bit more robust, with Brutality, and a healthier experience system based on it, so I'm beginning a few test runs with the rules. 

Breaking out some of the OG Reaper Mouslings from the early 90s, and the 3rd Edition D&D Twig Blights, I hastily statted them out to be somewhat equal and grabbed the small map included with the print copy of the rules: 

Part of the use of Brutal Quest is to emulate the greater narrative ideas I uncovered with Tales From Farpoint Using Rory's Story Cubes.  This scenario was dipping my toes into using Story Cubes and seeing how horrible I made the units.  

The scenario was simple:  The Mouslings needed to investigate the old well and see if the Cursed Gilded Porcine was there.  Interrupting their mission was a pack of Twig Blights coming out of the nearby forest.

The OG Mouslings.... 

The footmice were statted WYSIWIG,   Green Sword had the Persuade talent, Gray Hat could traverse difficult terrain, and Scrye, the Red Mouse Mage was poor in combat, but could cast Fireball (d10+6 damage to one target within LOS on a successful Psyche role) and Teleport (move to any spot within LOS). 

The Twig Blights of the Well

The Twigs were a simple group of monsters, low stats for everything (melee was the highest at a 4).  They were all surefooted, so they might develop a tactical advantage.  The Mouslings might be able to simply strike them hard and scare them off.

Using the Lone Warriors expansion for solo play, I rolled a new Agility score each turn for the Twig Blights (Initiative is in order of highest Agility to lowest amongst the figures.)

The Twigs charged over the bridge at the mice.  The three Mice-at-Arms simply parted to give Scrye a clear line of sight, and he rambling brambles with not one but TWO fireballs!    Fireball in the game is a single action spell, dealing d10+6 damage to one target, with the chance of continuing fire damage.   The Twigs were weakend, and only have 16 hit points each, so the blasts were enough for both of them to fail, break morale, and turn tail and run.  

Boom!  

The Mice-at-Arms charged forward, wounding a number of them, and splintering the Twigs attack.  

In the subsequent turns, it became a bit of slog.  Lots of missed rolls, and two-on-one fights that didn't pan out as suspected delayed the battle.   One of the broken Twigs rallied and rejoined the fray, meanwhile Scrye used one more two more fireballs before finally getting attacked by one very resilient Twig.  

The one thing I found interesting in the rules is Brutality.  As the characters wade further and further into combat, their rage and pain allow them to fight harder and achieve miraculous things.   Characters gain Brutality by certainly actions (Wounding an enemy each time is 1,  Rolling max damage is 3, Slaying a character is 0.  

Brutality can be cashed in at any time, such as improving skill rolls for an action (1), a reroll (3),  and even cashing in Brutality at the end of a session to increase a core skill by 1 (6 points).  

Scrye's indiscriminate spell use earned him a LOT of Brutality, and when it looked like a rogue Twig and just about to charge him, and cause a lot of havoc,  Scrye cashed in 5 Brutality for "The Characer deals 1d10 damage to their opponent.  Opponent may make armor rolls. "  It was enough to kill the Twig and cast a Teleport spell over to the unguarded well.  It did take four turns, but they recovered the pig, and the one surviving Twig ran off into the woods to warn the others.  Huzzah!  

Carnage!  But the pig is ours! 

The Mouslings didn't lose any figures, the routed Twigs had two run off the table, two return unphased, and two so battered they were simply placed near the brambles to finish their short time left.  

Brutal Quest is specifically designed to match a certain old school play style.  The repetitive die rolls and bookkeeping definitely sent me back to simpler times (when I had more time to keep track of this time of stuff.).  While I'm expanding my sci-fi game now using Fistful of Lead, I will play with a number of other scenarios for Brutal Quest, even improving the Mouslings for the next time.