Topic: Play Report: Better Than Any Man

I tried searching for play reports of Better Than Any Man, couldn't find any, then decided to write up my own. This game took place nearly a year ago, but the good times are still fresh in my mind.

Referee: Myself, first time OSR referee

Dr. Ludwig: Specialist, old man, doctor, points in Tinker and Search
Stanos: Fighter, sword and chain man
Sister Miriam: Cleric, leather and mace girl
Novelious the Strange:Magic-user, also goes by "The Unmanned" due to some unspecified past embarrassment

Hirelings: Gunter the Linkboy

The players started off south of Wurtzburg, heading north into "adventure and treasure" (we were running this as an in-between game, so I just tried to get them into the action quickly). They encountered the witch trials, questioned the logic of the Prince-Bishop, then a fight broke out where Novelious cast a Sleep spell that put down the half-dozen guards in one round while all the on-lookers and officials ran full tilt from the fight.

The players gained a great respect for Magic in LotFP, then headed north trying to find the fleeing accused witches, which they discovered were not witches but knew about a town in the north called Karlstadt run by a coven of witches. Since the players knew they couldn't show face in Wurtzburg, they headed north.

Stanos made a mercenary friend of Hans in the refugee camp while the others entered the town to figure out what the heck was going on. Stanos learned from Hans that the Swedish army was headed this way, decided to scout north from high-ground, saw the Glass Tiger stalking some kind family along the road, decided to attack the Glass Tiger, and was promptly killed by the magical creature.

In town, the players are disturbed by the Watcher's creature, but they make a good impression when they mentioned saving the accused women near Wurtzburg. Sister Miriam heals a little girl with plague in the plague alley and makes a new friend. Dr. Ludwig visits the crazies in the asylum building and learns about weird bug monsters in the wilderness near Goblin Hill.

They visit the Joy, get a little info because Novelious wants to prove his manliness by giving the Joy the best she's ever had, and then pick up a ranger friend from the Black Forest who was mostly in town for the wenches (new player, Specialist with Bushcraft and Stealth). They visit the Defiler in the graveyard, learn that a couple players know Spanish, and luckily not identified as undead.

At this point the party regroups (Stanos' player is now playing Hans), decides to look for Stanos, then decides it is too much work and his is probably dead, then decided to just head to the haunted house to the north they heard about.

Exploring the barn, the players figure out the haunting is just a bunch of guys pretending, find the secret tunnels, and either kill or capture them all. They interrogate the leader, get the secret map, then open some secret doors and find the zombie-bug-worshipper, which they promptly kill. Dr. Ludwig is a little more convinced that giant bug monsters might be in the forest somewhere, and the group decides to use the barn as their base from now on.

Ranger guards the base (player dropped out of the game) while the little girl, Mary, that Miriam picked up in Karldstadt is assigned "ghost noises" duty.

The others head to Goblin Hill, find the militia headquarters, get attacked, but Sleep saves them again. They are confused as to why the militia is attacking them, but decide to explore some more. They fight more militia and find the caves entrance around back, successfully figuring out what the secret map indicates.

They do a little exploring, finding the toilet hole that leads up into the base. And they find that magical golden bug amulet in the old priest room in the temple area. They spend a lot of time fighting Giant Ants in the ant caves, but turn back at the big cavern.

Next night's rest, the golden bug attacks Novelious, nearly kills him (Miriam saves him by digging it out of his chest with her knife), and it caught in a jar and shot with a pistol by Dr. Ludwig. Novelious ends up with a cool chest scar, and the party is one bug's worth of gold richer.

They try to enter the militia headquarters, are tricked by a cultist into just walking in, then get hot oil poured on them, barely surviving and they run away.

They spend a couple days resting at their base, then return to find the Swedish Army encamped at the militia base. Another player joins, a Fighter working as a mercenary for the Swedish. They negotiate and get some papers from the Swedish general to let them explore the cultist base in return for info and guidance through the insect temple and ant caves. They collect some of the leftover treasures in the cultist temple, including playing around with the magical mirror. They know that Karlstadt has burned at this point, but it seems that the Defiler is still alive somewhere in the region.

They lead some Swedes down against the giant ants, but the commander decides to retreat once they take heavy losses in the main cavern. The commander decides to blow the caves with gunpowder and cannon, which the players agree to, knowing they can re-enter the caves via the toilet in the base once the Swedish army moves on.

That is where we left off... some players left and we started another game. We might pick it up again at some point, but I also want to run this module with another group I play with. I think it can go really different each time depending on where the players start and what level they are.

Last edited by CironeAE (2014-10-14 02:55:02)

Re: Play Report: Better Than Any Man

Nice thanks for sharing

Re: Play Report: Better Than Any Man

Definitely went different when I ran it. I had Sebastian the Halfling (who was adopted by humans and believes himself one), Randi the Elf and Gustav the Dwarf (mercenaries who pass for human) and Luther the Cleric meet up in a cave. They were all seeking shelter from a storm, and Luther was fleeing a mob who wanted to burn him as a heretic.

One person seeking Luther found the cave, but was struck dead by Gustav's Warhammer. While trying to dispose of the body in the river, the party randomly encountered Jacob the Shyster. He was on his way to Karlstadt, and hired them for protection.

They couldn't get into Karlstadt the first time they tried. They were stuck in the refugee camp for a while. Finally they got in. After seeing The Provider feed everyone, Randi struck off in search of new spells to learn. Jacob, Sebastian and Gustav rolled very well, and were able to rob The Watcher. The game ended with the party heading towards the bandit's farmhouse.