This past Thursday night we finally finished playtesting The Bandit Map, the adventure for Blade & Crown that I hope to have out soon.

The scenario was pretty fun and this session, the last, involved equal parts silliness and seriousness. There were some really cool PC actions and dramatic moments. One character used a long-winded religious sermon as a combat maneuver, then piously and chivalrously allowed an NPC opponent to change weapons in the middle of combat. Another character used a combination of weird dancing and spooky magic (described as feeling like centipedes) to seriously mess with the mind of the big bad NPC. One character was always Aggressive in combat, adopting a grave berserker attitude; another made the big bad NPC pay for messing up one of his most dramatic moments. The players were getting good use out of their Traits, both positive and negative. There was an exploding barrel of oil, much use of smoke, some rescued prisoners and (a personal favorite) a very dramatic moment where it was unclear if the final confrontation was going to be with words or swords.

Most importantly, I got some good feedback on what worked, what the players wanted to see more of and just generally ways to make the scenario even better. I’m still hoping for publication in the next couple months — keep watching this space!