RUNEvember Session 7: Cragcliff Reformatory

This started life as a GMless quickstart for ANOINTED. I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't going to be suitable for that for the level of complication and pressure I wanted, and this was around the time that the first few Realms for RUNE were being made, so I sliced it down and converted it. (The encounter chart and prisoner discovery, as well as a few other aspects like prisoners being more present as encounters, were more complicated if you can believe it. I've since made a different prison break style quickstart that works better as an ANOINTED tutorial/starting point.)

When I build out an area story-wise I like to use layers of history. This is considering that any given location probably has had multiple things going on there over time, and reflecting that. There are two big stages to the Reformatory with that in mind: first, it was operating as stated (a place for detaining magic-users). Then, there was a clear change-over where the Rune Lord (who was a former prisoner) took over and used it as a way to capture people suspected of having runes.

First off, the clock. (Which as early playtesters well know, it started as 10 segments, then 15 segments, and finally 20 as I decided I'd rather not have it be less likely to fail-fail.) The nature of this kind of 20 -> 16 -> 12 -> 8 -> 4 countdown is that the early stages are much more emphasized. The grand total (20+16+12+8+4) is 60 ticks, so CONTAINING (the first stage) is 1/3 of the total and the last two stages are 1/5 each (8+4 are both COLLAPSING, so it's also practically 12). This means that after you've gotten your bearings, the big changes happen more frequently: random encounters get more frequent and more nasty, fights get harder and start appearing in places they weren't before, etc. So it starts really mattering when you have a better idea of what you're doing and where you have left to go. It's pretty generous in general.

Random encounters (and advancing the clock on movement on the routes where they exist) were a thing I put in to emphasize the need to find other ways around the prison. You can also use them strategically: for example, you might be able to take out one of the two unique enemies outside of their planned encounters, or even knock out the Rune Lord's first phase early. (This is why at high Lore you can increase or decrease the number: you can use that to provoke the top two encounters early if you like.) There are three main routes through to area 12 with some variations (through the normal corridors, through 1 -> 2 -> 11 -> 6 -> 7 -> 10 -> 12, through 1 -> 3 -> 5 -> 12) less time to get to 12 once cleared (2 ticks for the main corridor, 1 for the Warden's study, 0 for the path through 11 and 7).

Discovering prisoners looks like a normal rolltable at first, but there's a few tricks to it:

• First off, it's a 2d6, meaning there's a curve around 7: the three +1 Lore ones and the two Realm Items you can get are at 2 and 12 (the least likely rolls). Everything else is Engraved equipment.
• The total probability to get a 2, 6, 7, 8, or 12 is 50% - meaning it's a 50/50 chance to get either something relevant to progression or something relevant to combat on the first attempt. You have two DELVE actions to do this in Area 2 (the first "real" area) and you can't get the same thing twice (it's a reroll). This means that whichever of those two you got on the first one increases your chance of getting the other one!

As for the prisoners themselves:

• Typically ones on the low end are original prisoners (magic-users), and ones on the high end are newer ones (regular people picked up by the Rune Lord).
• 6, 7, and 8 are the most likely ones: 2/3 of these are related to the rune in question (7 had it, 8 was suspected to have it) while 6 is just an indication of how gnarly the reformatory was. (I also added Healing Vials to give a more direct benefit in case of Lore-only rolls so the player isn't left with a bunch of Lore and nothing to show for it mechanically.)
• 2 and 12 are similarly split: 2 (Pickaxe) is the site of an older "escape" route, while 12 (Jailer's Keys) probably happened during the changeover. (See above re: Healing Vials.)
• 5 and 9 (the most likely outside of 6-8) are basically an alternate Shield (Sanctuary Prayer) and Longsword (Sidesword). So it's a little more likely you'll get one of those than anything else, replacing either your default broken sword or plank shield.
• 3-4 and 10-11 are less "traditional" equipment. At the low end are spells from the original denizens of the reformatory, and not the most flattering kinds (Wasting Curse is necromancy, Fireball is an unpredictable spell explicitly used by war magi). The Wasting Curse in particular has text that implies that its user's imprisonment might have been somewhat justified, even - which is some indication that maybe some unsavory characters (hinting the Rune Lord) were here alongside those less deserving. At the high end are weapons from the various people picked up (Greatspear, Battle Axe) by whatever logic.

Equipment-wise, there's a LOT of it.

• Broken Sword is basically the Longsword with more movement and Same range instead of Adjacent. Same range is actually pretty beneficial here in a lot of cases, so even though it's not ideal, you could use it well if you're crafty. Plank Shield is a more Move-oriented Shield.
• Sanctuary Prayer is even more Move-oriented, with the added benefit that it lets you safely use Adjacent weapons (of which there are many) without having to worry about things at Same.
• Sidesword is also a more Move-oriented version of Longsword, but with added Quick on a 6: this lets you safely dispatch damaged enemies because its Harm resolves first, allowing some smart maneuvers.
• Fireball's a weird one: it has variable range based on rolls, but is largely not very mobile.
• Greatspear's one of the three two-handers. It's focused on Quick in both modes, much like the Sidesword, but relies more on being in a proper position before using it as such.
• Wasting Curse is relatively low-Harm, but has the benefit of being Same & Adjacent and having Mire, which restricts movement (very handy when fighting something that can't attack at Same/Adjacent...like, for instance, the Rune Lord).
• Battle Axe is like a less-mobile, less-Cleave, more-consistent Greataxe.
• Halberd is similar to Greatspear but with more Harm instead of Quick and even less mobility. (Deflect on its 7+ is also very helpful if you find yourself in a bad position.)
• Radiant Zweihander is the third two-hander. Its one-handed form is pretty high-Harm, but low-Move. When used two-handed, it's also quite defensive: Block and Warding are a great combination for that, and Same+Adjacent means it's a little more reliable to lean on the two-handed mode.
• Radiant Heater is a little less defensive at Same/Adjacent than a standard Shield, but it's balanced out by Warding for greater ranges.
• Barbed Chain is pretty helpful if you're in a good range to not get hit. Pairs well in this Realm with things that hit at Same (like Broken Sword and Wasting Curse) or 2 Spaces (like Halberd, Greatspear, and Fireball) depending on your opponents.
• Radiant Crest is pretty handy when you're only moving a little bit, such as if you have a more mobile shield and heavier weapon. Goes well with the two Radiant weapons, for example, or two-handed Zweihander and a Rune or Utility that grants movement.

Normal enemies:

• Swordsman and Halberdier started with some standard statblocks from the playtest. Originally, I tweaked Swordsman a bit so its Move 1/Harm 1/Block 1 came up more and left Halberdier as-is. In this most recent playtest, I added the Slow keyword, which makes the Harm from certain abilities resolve late: this got added to each of their 6 abilities alongside a buff (+1 Move for Swordsman 6, +1 Harm for Halberdier 6) to emphasize their roles: Swordsmen are supposed to rush you down, while Halberdiers chip away at range. For more defensive builds, you'll want to wait for their more standard moves to attack, but for more full-offense builds you'll want to go for the throat when those 6's get rolled. Their flavor text gives you some clue as to what happened here, which is reinforced during the Rune Lord fight: they're being mind-controlled by the current owner of the facility.
• Hounds are Same-only attackers, which comes alongside a new keyword: Pursue, which lets them spend remaining move after you spend your move. Broken Sword can be very helpful against them if you don't have enough move to stay at a distance. Their flavor text indicates that they're something like a lesser version of the Pursuers.
• Guard-Captains have Mire on a 4-6, which can bog down Engraved and make them more vulnerable to those Slow abilities. Their flavor text clues you into the fact that something's different here: they're ill-fitting in their clothes, indicating that they weren't the original people wearing them (because they're former prisoners), which is also emphasized by a Lore entry.

Uniques:

• The Scarred Pursuer is the slower and tankier of the two, with substantial Block. It's more vulnerable to ranged strategies on account of lower speed, but it can likely catch up with high rolls.
• The Sleek Pursuer is very fast, and can be wildly deadly if you let it get to range 4 and you get unlucky. It's more vulnerable to melee strategies because its Momentum does very little at close range, but low rolls can be deadly for those purposes.
• You only technically have to beat one of the two Pursuers to get out. (You can skip point 10 entirely if you unlocked point 5, but doing that requires finishing point 9.)

In most cases I planned terrain and placement around the specific scenario/landmarks. There's a fun thing I did in the fight in point 9 where I anticipated someone going south to avoid the Scarred Pursuer, teeing up the Sleek Pursuer to possibly roll that 5-6 and deliver a wild attack on round 3. This is because it'd be very funny if that happened.

Rune Lord:

• First phase: Three Adjacent/2 Spaces attackers mean you're going to get a lot of use out of Warding, emphasizing the Iniquisitor's Zweihander and/or Heater. The 3-4 also provides something that the Radiant Crest overcomes. You can also get a lot of mileage out of long-range weaponry here because it'll stay in range (with the caveat that the 5-6 being what it is means you'll likely want some defensive backup plan).
• Second phase: This is where closer-range weapons really shine, and every ability does something that the Radiant Crest obviates. But you can also sling back and forth with them at range if you prefer, stepping out of range on a 5-6.
• The first phase stays down when defeated, so you can switch up your build to better fit phase 2 if it turns out your build doesn't really suit it.

And finally, in the Souls tradition, the Rune gives you something distinctive that the Rune Lord does.