Game(s) Played:
No, really, the following post has MAJOR spoilers for the Gloomhaven campaign. This has been your spoiler warning.
It has been a long wait but we have finally brought Gloomhaven to the table! I will be running a single party campaign with two core party members and the occasional plus one who will jump in and out of the campaign at different scenarios. Without further ado, let's dive right in.
Gloomhaven #1– Black Barrow
Game: Gloomhaven
Designer: Isaac Childres
Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 30 – 120 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Role Playing, Legacy, Hand Management
Player(s):
To not bog down the first session with too much setup, character selection, character names and item purchasing was all done by sending out softcopies of characters and items available to everyone in the party the week prior to the session. I also sent out pdfs of the character ability cards to each Player to help with their purchasing decisions.
And so our adventure begins with us finding All Might "The Symbol of Peace" (Moses as the Brute), Thalia "Heir of Saint Traft" (Gideon as the Scoundrel) & Rincewind "the magical equivalent to the number zero" (Justin as the Spellweaver) sitting in a bar in Gloomhaven, having left their homes with delusions of grandeur & heroism and the meagre coins in their pocket, looking to become the next big thing only to realize that life hasn't turned out quite the way they want it to be.
Who is this Jekserah and why exactly do we trust her?
And so with the epic cry of "SUIT UP!", our intrepid band of adventurers set off from the city of Gloomhaven in search of this thieves' hideout to introduce them to Common Sense & Reasonable Discourse. Just as we were about to leave the market…
Vermlings be tripping. Can't he tell that we have even less money than he does?
We didn't have any money after all the shopping, so we told the Vermling to sod off, nicely (Option B). Thankfully we weren't scammed by the filthy little con artist, I'm sure he will be back later. Finally setting foot outside the gates of Gloomhaven, another random encounter happens (cue Final Fantasy random encounter sound effect "pssshhhhxxxuuuu").
Why can't road trips ever be like real life where nothing happens
All Might looks at us with his puppy dog eyes and begs us to let him keep it. Thalia gives him "that" look which says "I'm not picking up any dog poop" and so the vote comes down to me and I give in to the 10 foot giant with 6 inch fangs and his anime sparkly eyes (more because of the former than the latter), on the condition that he has to take care of it (which of course lands him with 3 x -1 Battle Modifier cards). With that out of the way, we finally arrive at our destination…
Our wallets are like onions, when we open them it makes us cry
Our adventure begins! So much excitement!
Already this looks reminiscent of my days of D&Ding with my old Dungeon Master who used to take our hopes, eat it and crap out Beholders back at us. All Might starts off by performing a "Provoking Roar" to attract the Bandit Guards' attention and gets ready to give them an "Eye for an Eye" in retaliation. Unfortunately the Bandit Guards decide to put their shields up (+1) and take a swig of health potion even though they weren't injured (wacky AI exists everywhere). Since they won't come, I decide to take the fight to them, launching 3 "Fire Orbs" at the 3 Bandit Guards on the right to get the fight going.
Never let the tank open the door when he's got the lowest initiative
It takes us a while but we finally manage to clear the first room without taking too much damage. I really like my "Fire Orbs" so I mistakenly called upon the "Reviving Ether" to retrieve it back into my hand wayyyy too early. Then All Might decides to open the door to the next room which triggers a free move by all the baddies in it. We call "CUT" and take a really long strategic break to discuss if Thalia and I should jump in and deal damage to the enemy. Guess what?
LEEROOOOYYYY JENNNNKINS!!!! Never gets old but this was a terrible mistake
Here lieth Thalia, with one arrow to the chest too many
So yeah, that happened because the Bandit Archers had a much lower initiative than we did. We blame the dog and All Might of course, but mostly the dog. Admittedly Thalia should not have fallen in battle because I totally forgot about the rule where you can lose cards from your hand / discard to mitigate damage. Leaving me to handle the last Bandit Archer, All Might jumps over the traps and kicks in the door…
Cue All Might's theme song, ironically called "I'm Here!!"
Here's where everything that's gone wrong so far, goes SO right for All Might that it looks like a choreographed fight scene. So the Bandit Archers decide to move up and lay traps to deter All Might shooting at him over the Living Bones acting as shields.
Eat traps, you skin and bones!
Sensing an opportunity, All Might jumps right in and does a "Sweeping Blow" pushing both the Living Bones into the traps. We take this opportunity to cut to Rincewind who is facing down the last Bandit Archer in the previous room.
What the…
So Rincewind fired off his final "Mana Bolt" to take out the Bandit Archer before collapsing to the floor, completely mana exhausted, cursing the dog with his last breath before passing out. Meanwhile, All Might "Tramples" the remaining grouped up enemies, leaving only one Bandit Archer standing.
How did all that just happen?
Spying the treasure chest in the corner of the room, All Might jumps over to it and launches his "Spare Dagger" at the hapless Bandit Archer, killing him and thereby completing the scenario successfully for our party.
Now let's cut to the action in real time!
My boss fight sense is tingling!
Results Of Game(s)
Loot!:
Moses aka All Might "It's fine now. Why? Because I am here!" – 14 Exp & 4 Gold & 1 Tick
Gideon aka Thalia "We shouldn't have let him take the dog" – 10 Exp & 6 Gold
Justin aka Rincewind "Next time we run to the next room and leave All Might behind" – 10 Exp & 4 Gold
We had soooo much fun today and I can't wait until when we can follow up on the campaign for the next adventure. We talked about what went wrong, the dog, what we could have done differently, the dog, how fluid combat is, the dog, how we need to communicate with one another and of course the flea ridden mangy dog. Soooo fun.
We continue with our regular transmission of the monthly meet up in two weeks' time. Thank you for reading!
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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