Last week-end I drove 1 1/2 hours by train to MART, with an age of 20 years one of the oldest conventions here in Germany. As sad news, this MART was the last one ever. The head organisator has to move abroad, and as a good part of the other organisators belongs to his family, there aren't enough people left to run it another time.
On the saturday of this historical event, I finally had the chance to run FTA!, but step by step:

Prep:
On a German message board, I proclaimed my intention to run FTA!, and beforehand I gathered 4 people to definitively play it. In the end things came in-between, and I was left with 2 players.

I decided to do the adventure as classical as possible for a.) nostalgia, b.) to deliver something unusual you don't see often on German cons and c.) to see how well the system delivers its proposed old-school vibe.
So, I just had the basic idea to sort the thing into the classical threefold town/wilderness/dungeon, make the dungeon ecology old-school with aparted factions with relationships to each other, and that was all.

I first used the dungeon generator to generate a general layout for my dungeon, but without doors, room contents, niche contents or anything else apart from the bare-bones floor plan. I also ignored stairs and trap doors as I wanted to keep the dungeon at one floor - it's a convention game, I should look to keep the dungeon so that it is finishable in acceptable time.

Thereafter, I rolled on the random encounter table to determine which factions inhabit the dungeon, and came up with:
- goblins
- orcs
- hag (that was a more then nasty throw on the table)
- skeletons

The goblins and orcs were no sweat - there's a tribe of each one, I reduced their number significantly due to the fact that it's a convention game and was done with that.
The hag was definitively solitary as it would otherwise be a definitive TPK against a low-level party. A single hag is still a tricky enemy, but with ganging up on a single one, some precautions as blindfolds against the evil gaze and a good plan as building traps and luring her into it, it should be solveable.
The skeletons then made my imagination flow. I asked the players if they would be cool with a gonzo He-Man-like setting were barbarians with laser guns run around, and they were. So I changed them to rogue combat robots with laser guns, with the same stats as skeletons but with a better DR.

Finally, the backstory and ecology... I decided that the hag should be the queen of the dungeon due to her clear superiority in comparison to all other monsters, and the main villain of the adventure. A further roll showed that the hag would be a erath-shaper... Quite interesting possibilities in a dungeon.
The orcs and goblins were her suppressed servants, with the goblins as cheap frontline guards for the dirtwork and the more durable orcs as elite guard. As I wanted the possibility of diplomacy, I didn't turn the Gs and Os into single-minded obedient grunts, but rather decided that there should be something that spoils the relationship a bit. After reading the entry on hags again for ideas, the "witch" connotated me with apeshit wiccan stuff. So I decided that the hag should be crackpot who believes into female supremacy, so that she would only accept women as leaders of her troops. As G&O women make terrible fighters, she decided that Mohammed must go the mountain. She created two sets of cursed plate-mail that changes those wearing it into women with plate-mail bikinis, forced the chieftains into wearing it, and so saved her delusions from collision with reality. While the grunt races are still loyal out of fear, their leaders are looking for a cure and quite pissed off, so that diplomacy could enter. And if the PCs rather slay the grunts... Well, these pieces would be loot with a rather nasty surprise, or a chance to make a big sacrifice for power, so it's a win-win from adventure design POV.
The robots were placed into a isolated part of the dungeon, relicts from the former use of the dungeon as a mad scientists lab. The door to their complex was as shut as the goblins only could, and traps were placed in front of it in case that the robots should ever break the door. Their part was only optional to enter, and the gain would be a bit of technoligical gadgets. I used to magic table to determine the gadgets, just converting the fluff from magical artifacts to technological gadgets.
Finally, there were some incovenient rooms left... I decided that the doors to them are just nailed and used the standard rules to fill'em with content. Some fitting animals as giant ants, a few magic traps and a bit of treasure was the result, which I shifted again to technological origin and explained them to remains of the mad scientist.

For the adventure itself, I used the old "bad guy stole expensive plotdevicium treasure from good guy, now retrieve it"-plot. So there were some goblin warriors with a goblin amazon in plate bikini, B&Ed the kings palace, stole the Griffin Crown and ran away. The last time they were seen was near a village 4 days away, and from thereon there would be enough people to remember such a strange posse to lead the PCs to the dungeon.

I also created a cheat-sheet with the exemplaric stunts and the combat sequence as a hand-out for the players to ease them in - it's approved by Pundit and Clash, and should soon be available on the official HP.

PCs:
PCs were generated with the old-school method: Roll in order, look what class and race fit to your stats, and be done with it.

- D., one of the two registered players. I had already prolonged internet contact to him, and we had the chance to game together before the con so I knew he's a good player.
He rolled up pretty shitty attributes except for his Charisma of +5. He turned it into a Trollan Rogue-Wizard with Energy Shaping School and a focus on social skills as bluff.
- M., the other determinated player. She's from D.s group where he GMs his home-brew, and I had also gamed with her before and knew that she performs well.
After a three-tries-string of sums of -3 and below, her attributes were a bit better, but not much, and it was mainly her Charisma of +3 that made her break even to a sum of +2 or so. She made a male Half-Merman Rogue-Wizard with Cold Shaping and a bit wider skill spread (including D/D traps)..
- S., a convention-goer with whom I hadn't gamed before. He was amused by my blurb along the vibe of "no _good_ role-players please, this is fun game of crawlin' the dungeon, bashin' monster skulls and sackin' loot" that stood out among all the "no powergamers plz, this is a _serious_ moody game"-blurbs that are usually found on cons, so that he gave it a try. He ended up as another Prince Charming with otherwise shitty attributes, but we convinced him to turn it into a Barbarian Warrior so that the group wouldn't be totally trampled down in the first melee.

As the social status roll made M. a noble and the others slaves, we decided that the other two are her slaves. So the king called his vessel, told her about his grim fate, gave her the last evidence, I showed the hand-drawn map, she called her slaves, and so after about a half minute of prelude the group went forward... to adventure!

Wilderness, afishertown and old men with accordions
And so they went through the wilderness... All in all, there were about 3 hours of wilderness encounters.
Notable encounters:
- three goblins with slings, the first encounter ever. The notable thing about it was that in round 1 there was already one casualty - the barbarian warrior charged forward, got hit in a flurry of slings and quickly was in the red double digits. S. wasn't to unhappy about it though as the new character he rolled up was a bad-ass noble barbarian fighter with all physical stats in the + area (including Con+5) but Int -5.
- 7 sugasangues: They swarmed the PCs, hit everyone and would within few turns have killed everyone. Luckily a Trollan crossbow bolt killed one of them, the birds lost their morale check, and so they were still alive with only 2 points of con drain. Morale can be a real livesaver against hordes - never leave your home without some ranks in intimidation.
- the swine: A single wild boar that went down within a few hits. I guess every game that involves swine-slaying is truly a Pundit game, and I'm still wondering why they are called "wild boars" and not "wild swines" in the monster section :haw:

The 3 hours include the visit in the fisher town, that was briefly skipped. That was when the random joke stuff from the players happened that I picked up and used in the game. So, the town was signposted as "Afishertown", and under the sign sat a old man with a wart on his nose who played "The Fisher Woman From Lake Constance" (well-known German folk-song) on his accordion. He jumped up and asked the players if thjey had seen a strange goblin posse with a griffin grown and a plate bikini chick, 'cause they had stolen his boat. And so they knew where they had to go, and on the way they met several other old men with warts on their nose and accordions who all suffered from strange goblin posse: Stolen food, trampled gardens, all the minor illicit stuff.

Finally, they got to the dungeon.... This was where I gave them the 2nd level. (I know it's normally only per adventure, but I wanted also to see how improvement works.) Within 5-10 minutes we were done with it, so it worked rather well.

First forays into the dungeon, Fantasy Troll-Playing Game and good plans going bad
They quickly entered the entry room with its four exits. Behind the first one they opened they found a single goblin who pissed on the wall (random encounter), and he went down in no time. They went further and stumbled into a group of 8 goblins. They entered melee and slayed one, while two ran away through the door. The PCs heard a clicking sound and assumed that a trap on their square was made active, so they retreated to the entry room. (Actually, the runaways only deactivated a bolt trap on the way to their chieftain.)
After a bit of waiting out, a door opened with a goblin on the way to another goblin group to alarm them. He went down in no time, but as the PCs messed up their stealth rolls the other group was alarmed anyway. So three doors open, and the goblins (including the plate bikini chick) heckled them from all sides. Missile fire puts down M. and D. into red digit HPs, and the goblins shut the doors again. "Get outta here! We don't wanna see y'all again!" shouted they, and last man standing S. messed up his morale check so he didn't have much choice but leave the goblins alone. He managed to stabilize the two other characters, but this burned away all the adventure points left.

And so they camped outside to recover from their wounds. On the last day, they got a random encounter, and it turned out to be a troll. As I didn't want to wipe'em out chanceless, I integrated it as a troll girl who disinterestedly strolls along the camp. If they leave her alone, nothing happens, but if they attack... Well, let the dice decide, and the dice would probably judge "pack'em&hack'em".
Unexpectedly, they decided to talk to her. D.s Trollan totally charmed and bluffed her, and they managed to convinve her to go into the dungeon to find some tasty goblins. I just put the troll girl into the dungeon, grabbed the stats from the monster section and let them play her. She quickly entered into the 8 goblins room and went through them like a hot monoblade chainsaw through a pound of microwaved butter. A few stood behind to slow her progress and tried stun stunts to slow her down, but without success. The rest fleed deeper into the dungeon to alarm the hag - even ganged up to the extrems they wouldn't have a chance gainst a troll, but with a bit of earth shaping they should win hands down.
The troll girl was quickly finished with the remaining goblins, but she lost track of the fugitives. And so the players lead her aimlessly into the general direction where the goblins fleed, where she finally stumbled into the corridor in front of the goblin shamaness lair. Unknown to her a teleport trap was in front of the door, and she failed her peception throw. And so she stumbled into it... And awakened in the woods some 100 miles away.

The players decided that they wanted to enter the duingeon now - and ran into the hag who together with goblins just went around the corner. A Occult Lore check later I told them about the power and properties of hags and asked them if they wanted to retreat - but they decided to charge forward.
So, things went quickly:
- Round 1, magic declaration phase: Hag quick-casts Shatterstone under the feet of M. and S., both are down in the pit, M. is already in red digits from falling damage. (I gave them a PAS DEX saving throw to escape from the spell area - it wasn't in the book, but I guess against damaging spell effects there should be a saving throw. Was that ruled rightly?)
- Round 1, magic execution phase: D. casts magic missile against the hag, D. fails his spell check, D. is in red digits too.
- Round 2, movement phase: Hag moves to edge of the put, hag gives S. a evil gaze, S. fails his saving throw: Stunned for 3 days.

T! P! K!

In less then 2 combat rounds.

The goblins lapidated the helpless S. and threw the dead D. also into the pit, the hag casted Stonewall to fill the pit again, and so the party was wiped out without a single trace. That was how it ended.
The players weren't too sad about the outcome - they prefered to die by the judgement of the rules and dice, rather than being saved by fudged dice rolls or GM-wise shenanigans with the consistency of the rules and the setting.

Conclusions
Overall, the players and I perceived the system as well done, fun and enjoyable.
Especially stunts and the quick character creation were appreciated. Collective melee was seen as something fresh and unusual, but nothing to write at home about.

I especially noticed that my concern about whiffing melee due to DR eating all damage didn't play a role. With all that combat, there were only 3 combat rounds where DR ate up all damage - and two of them were in the combat with the swine (Dr6) until the PCs could all gang up on it.
My concern about the headache and arbitration 'cause of GM-allocated melee damage also wasn't confirmed by the play-test - most of the time it was clear on who the PCs focused, or it was anyway enough damage to take down every enemy.

The players voiced however a few concerns... It's too late to take them into account for the MRB itself, but maybe Pundit finds them helpful for FTA!GN and/or alternate rules on the HP:
- unmanageable rule-book: Researching rules and charts was a bit of a hassle as they are all spread over the whole book, and they are tough to find due to the lack of an index.
A condensed collection of all the important tables would be a great timesaver, either on a few pages in the end of the book where they can be quickly found (Savage Worlds does that for instance), or on a GM screen. A 1-2 pages bare-bones summary of race modifiers, class modifiers, progression by class and so on would also be a great help to speed up character creation and progression.
- ACT/PAS differentiation: The players disliked that, and as a GM I also found it's a bit of a pain. It isn't always clear which applies, and the examples aren't rather intuitive either. (For instance, to actively spell-cast you use PAS, while some stunts are resisted with ACT.)
It could probably easily be replaced by Level (or half level for non-rogues) and no differentiation between active and passive.
- equipment micro-management: It was a total show-stopper in character creation because you had to buy every single thing individually - every rope, every torch, every blanket, just everything. Especially the equipment for the nobles (who rolled in cash) took a lot of time away from play.
Abstract wealth levels à D20 Modern probably wouldn't feel old-school enough, but it would be a great help to get pre-made packages, like let's say a "woodsman package" with tent, blanket and everthing else for outdoor survival, or a "dungeoneer package" with rope, torches and everything else strictly needed. With these packages as starting points you could still remove and add individual items, but it would save a lot of time as you have a flatly paid base from which to start the further shopping.
Alternatively, it could be a good house-rule to beef up the starting equipment a bit so that everyone has a blanket, a rope, some torches and everything else what is basic equipment for every adventurer and rather shorten the start money or replace it with more items to choose.
- skill micro-management: D. said that the skill list is a bit too long for beginning players. He would rather like to see something more condensed and packaged, like the TRoS quick-start vocations where you just buy a thief vocation and know lock-picking, bluffing, burglary, sneaking and everything else what a thief knows on the same level.
(Personally, I wouldn't agree to this. Maybe there's potential for the one or another merger between skills, or a skill that could instead be allocated to Craft/Lore, but all in all the skill list is sufficiently short, and I didn't notice that anyone took overtly long to decide for his allocation.)

I just checked the official page for another reason, the cheat-sheet is now up for use by everyone: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/fta_cheat-sheet.pdf

That cheat sheet is going to come in handy. During our 'Orcs' campaign I'd scribbled down a few of the rules for whoever was GMing the session.

Starting Equipment - I just allowed each a greater/lesser starting package depending on social class. When I did a scenario with a different group I just asked them what they thought their character should/would have.

My players found that missile fire is deadly in FtA! too. Luckily they were the ones firing.

Sounds like a fun session, especially the cool use of the troll-girl. If I was at a convention, that'd be the kind of game I'd want to play.

Thanks, I hope the cheat-sheet it is helpful for others too It definitively encouraged to stunt and kept combat fast.

I would probably handle equipment the same way that you did the next time. As it was also a test-game for my upcoming review, I wanted to look what happens if you use the system by the book though.

Quote from: SeanSounds like a fun session, especially the cool use of the troll-girl. If I was at a convention, that'd be the kind of game I'd want to play.

Indeed! I liked the troll-girl part too, as the players really managed to surprise me with that idea.

Quote from: SkyrockI just checked the official page for another reason, the cheat-sheet is now up for use by everyone: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/fta_cheat-sheet.pdf

Awesome!