Warhammer FRPG: Thousand Thrones Slog Continues!

Everything started off in a mix of suck and pleasant. On my way to +Tom Wright house, everyone decided, "Hey, even though this street is closed off, let's ALL take this side street. We're super smart that way!" So there was traffic off his street for four blocks. I parked about two blocks away because that traffic just wasn't going anywhere.

On the other hand, I did stop at Sarpino's and pick up a meatball calzone. While I'm not a huge fan of their pizza, their calzone's are pretty good for fast food.

Even better, one of my other amigos had brought over Justice League War. That carton movie appears to be based off the new origin of the Justice League in the new "52" version of DC. M'eh. There is some good dialog and banter back and forth between the characters. The use of Shazam as opposed to Aquamen was interesting but strange in that you now have Superman and Shazam on the same team.

The movie itself though?  It boils down to one long fight screen between the Justice League and Darkseid. I've seen worse but it just didn't do anything for me. If I want a real long fight scene I'll go turn on Dragonball Z and watch the Cell saga or something.

But the amigo who brought over the movie also brought over Dos Equis and although it was only a twelve pack, it made everything much more... interesting!

So we started off recovering from our fight with the nine vampires. A fight that the GM assured us we couldn't win. So we decide to head back after the 'Child', some weird mutant with the ability to influence those around him and the strength of the influence increases with the time spent with the child.

We wander through a forest, following the trail. Lots of refuse and corpses left in the wake of the wagons of the child's entourage.  As night starts to fall, we come across a way inn. For those who don't know, in the Warhammer setting, way inns are stations where travelers and rest and relax in dangerous places in relative safety.

Turns out the crusade has apparently already been here as its abandoned. We search around for a while looking for some provisions or other treasures that might have been left when a wagon with a priest and his various guards and attendants come up. We and they decide on a mutual "ignore each other" bit and set up shifts to patrol the walls.

The elf and I take one of the later patrols since we both have night vision. Hey, look at that, some critters on the inside of the fort tring to open the gate. They blather about wanting only food and shelter but their on our side of the gate trying to open it to the OUTSIDE where other creatures are already gathered.

Remember when I said that combat in Warhammer can be swingy? One of them hits me with a sling bullet for 18 wounds right off the bat. Unless you're traveling with the right party, especially with the random rolling of starting character careers, getting heavily wounded sucks. Anyway, my dwarf has 14 wounds and a 4 toughness so I'm up but seriously hurt. A few rounds of combat allows us to finish off those on the inside.

Turns out the ones on the outside are also mutants but see, their being chased by Beastmen. So the guards who were firing on the mutants while we fought the ones inside, them help the mutants into the fort.

What follows is almost a narrative combat in which mutant, beastman, and guardsmen suffer horrific damage. I burn through a fate point, one of my other buddies burns through a fate point, the GM is kind and allows another player whose already burned through all his fate points to 'only' be knocked to zero wounds.

At that point the wood elves show up and massacre the Beastmen.

Yeah, I felt that anything we did at that point was pretty much a m'eh opportunity.

And that's the second time that's happened in two sessions.

If the next session involves another ass-whipping with no possibility of victory, can't say I'll be continuing this campaign.

I enjoy a challenge. I enjoy having the potential for death. You get fate points and fortune points so there isn't a real threat from something stupid happening once or twice.

I hate narrative rail roading. Or at least when used too much. I've had my share of players that are like wild chickens and need some structure to get them going onto the adventure proper. But beating the players down in encounters time and time again isn't quite the same thing.

For those who've run through the Thousand Thrones, I've seen some positive and negative comments about it. I'll be curious to see where the next session takes us but may have to bring a 24 pack next time to wade through it.