What follows is a report of how it went, including how the rules came up in-game and were resolved, combined with a more general review of the book and rules.
A couple of months ago, I downloaded the free Playtest PDF of Tales of Argosa and read it on my phone in lunchbreaks and spare time. I figured there were some things I did and didn't like about it and thought I'd never run it. But something about it, combined with a favourable report I heard in a podcast, niggled away at the back of my mind and eventually I just bit the bullet and bought the damn book. I bought the soft cover for £26 on Drivethru.
I first saw Tales Of Argosa when I began looking for a system that was lighter than those we had been using, but not as light as a full-on OSR D&D clone. I had grown tired of D&D 3.5 years ago and persuaded my group to switch to Modiphius' 2d20 Conan, a system I still have an enormous amount of love for but which is crunchy enough that it isn't always what I want to use online. I knew the friends I was thinking of wouldn't want to learn a whole new system and would find something like Black Sword Hack or Barbarians Of Lemuria unsatisfying and we had tried DCC, but some of us just didn't enjoy race as class (though it has to be said, if you play in an all human setting, such as the world of Conan, that becomes irrelevant. I am also tired of 'high magic' systems, but that deserves a post of its own.
I was running this at short notice as a player in our regular campaign couldn't make it. I was running it on Roll 20, for two players, and I grabbed a map on there that I've never used and decided who the bad guys were. Done. My players rolled up characters in about half an hour. Lucky Luca, the Rogue, and Black-eyed Jasper, the fighter. They're on a road. They come across a turned wagon and a dead horse and tracks leading into the forest.
Jasper and Luca notice an odd chap watching them (eventually - I didn't have them roll for it but I didn't point it out, either. It was right there on the screen) and fail a Perception (Detect) check to see his mate hiding. This ultimately leads to a knife fight when they don't accept an invitation to go with the two strangers to see the people they 'rescued' from the wagon accident. They PCs win, but one of them only has a single hit point left by the end of a combat that lasted a single round. I'm using basic 'Human Bandit' NPCs here, nothing fancy. This is dangerous combat, and it set the tone for the rest of the game. The other player looks around for some herbs, as he has the Apothecary skill, and uses Perception (Detection) to find them and treat his friend.
Around this time, the Rogue asks if he has heard any unusual stories about the area. I call for a General Lore (Cha) check, Charisma reflecting that a socialite such as Luca will spend more time in bars than reading books. He succeeds and has indeed heard tales of 'Goblin Men' in the hills hereabouts - people who have given themselves to the darkness in moments of anger or despair. (I could have just told the players this, of course, but we were learning the system).
Following the tracks leads the PCs to a set of stairs straight down through the forest floor. They quickly find themselves inside a series of rooms and passages lit with braziers, that resemble the cellars to a building no longer there. Jasper and Luca proceed to sneak about, trying to find the 'rescued' wagon party. Luca picks the lock to a room. Luca's target is 19 because his Dexterity is 17 and his has the Traps and Locks skill and its an easy lock. He rolls 2 which is 17 below target which is less than half and so is a Great Success. I decide to reward Luca with a +1 bonus to all future attempts at lock-picking down here, as he understands the locks they use. Inside the room is a lit brazier, and the PCs rifle through old, unused belongings in the detritus of what looks like a very troubled and squalid life. A successful Perception (Detect) check reveals an item of interest and a quick roll on the Uncommon Gear table reveals it to be a holy symbol, in this case filthy and left to rot on the floor.
On a stair, Luca failed to find a tripwire with a Perception (Detection) check and then failed to evade it with a Luck (Dex) save and took the kind of damage other games laugh off, but which in this context could mean the next fight is your last. Crouched before a large door with lit showing beneath, the PCs listen in on snatches of a conversation that seems to centre around captive and if they will 'turn' given the right 'incentive'. The Rogue opens the door a crack, catches a glimpse on some unnaturally unpleasant-looking individuals and a woman who seems to be in charge as well as being a magic-user.
They decide (wisely) that discretion is the better part of valour and retreat, discovering, in the process, a side door leading to well-furnished chambers that include a desk. The desk contains scraps of letters, mostly int eh same hand and mostly to the same person, somebody called 'Cassandra', who it seems might be related to the writer. The letters tell of despair and grief and clearly never got sent. A few more of the sort of Traps and Locks and Perception checks described above lead tot he discovery of a minor treasure, but I use the Rare Gear table instead of treasure - partly because I have already determined that the real treasure is elsewhere and partly because its an interesting table - and as a result, the PCs end up with several vials of Poppy Milk, which they fail to identify with an Apothecary (Int) check. It is worth noting that I could have made that an Apothecary (Perception) check instead and that this may have altered the outcome, but I figured Jasper the fighter had probably never seen poppy milk before. This flexibility around attributes and skills I find really refreshing and easy to improvise with.
And that was where we left it. The PCs are deciding whether to keep searching or take out what NPCs they can, some of whom they detected in a nearby room while stealthing earlier. The rules for surprise mean they will get a free attack if they kick the door in. NPCs all use d8s for Hit Dice, so single Hit Dice NPCs will probably have about 4 or 5 HP, to the PCs' 6 and 16 respectively. The combat rules mean that under those circumstances, the PCs will likely kill a few immediately.
We shall see.
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