Another RAM Play Test with Scott and David
It's been about two months since the last time I played RAM with my friends from the Prismatic Waystation, but tonight we got to spend some more time in Skerples' Magical Murder Mansion. Our first session, back in November, was cut short by a surprising early snow here in the mountains so this was a bit of a better session for a play report. This time we had Scott from XPRolls and David from Tree Climber. We'll get you next time Bagel and Kati!
Spoilers ahead for anyone who intends to play through this funhouse!
Never Trust a Red Rug
This time, the party made sure to thoroughly explore the southwest corner of the New Wing on the first floor. They first had to contend with a pit trap covered with a lazily glued red rug. During our first session, they correctly identified that red rugs glued to the floor are a bad sign, so they trod carefully around this one. Upon closer inspection, they found a seam in the center of it and pulled at some loose threads (6 of Hearts), finding a mechanical linkage to the door to Room 5. They triggered the trap from a safe distance and then sidled into the Velvet Bedroom. Upon discovering the three zombies in this bedroom, they decided to bait and switch (3 of Hearts) the zombies into chasing the robot back into the hallway, falling into some spikes. This cleared the way to investigate an odd painting and reveal a secret door into Room 8.
Laser Rats are Friend Shaped
Room 8 contained a mattress chock full of laser rats. The party saw this as a potential useful ally, so they employed some animal handling (Ace of Diamonds) to coax the rat into their hands, where he became a short range blaster pistol for the party as long as they could keep him fed and happy. They also found a dish full of a pink fluid. They drank it in order to identify mystery liquid (Ace of Hearts). It turned out to be an oil of slipperiness, which they believed they could synthesize in a pinch.
What's My Motivation?
They left through a door to the south, encountering the 30 Inch Diameter Bookworm, a slovenly monstrosity eating all of the books in the mansion. This was a formidable foe and they had to consider how to handle it. Eventually they decided to try to find a book to use as bait to feed the worm some of the frictionless oil. They found an untouched book at the top of the shelf, The Mysteries of Bastion, and were getting ready to secrete the oil of slipperiness, but, to their horror...drew an Ace of Spades, which had already been encoded with Intuit Deeper Motivation in the last session. As the PARTY held this tome in their hand and made eye contact with the gargantuan worm, they deeply understood...that this worm wants to eat books. It devoured their arm, causing a MEMORY LEAK encoded to the Queen of Spades. Thankfully, they were able to recover their composure and attempt to vomit oil of slipperiness (now 2 of Diamonds) once more, which freed their arm and sickened the worm. They then Pulled over a Large Object (9 of Diamonds) to trap the worm under a bookshelf and make their escape.
Current memory and inventory after tonight's session
Quick Thoughts
They cleared several more rooms from here and successfully made their way to the second floor! This test worked really well I think. It was good to get to actually play through some combat and see the PARTY take some wounds but still pull through. Additionally, it's always fun to see what consequences come about from pulling an already-encoded-card, I was glad my players got to experience that tonight. I also love the emergent properties of seeing how a PARTY begins to calcify. This particular PARTY, for example, is deeply empathetic and sucks at basically any physical or dexterous task unless they can achieve it by becoming frictionless.
This group didn't have a Reliability Cluster, so I still have not taken another look at re-tuning how that talent works yet. Additionally, I am interested in adding a Positronic Cluster that interacts specifically with magic items/wands/scrolls that you often find in adventure modules.
From there, though, I'm interested in commissioning some art and doing some more intentional layout so that I can put RAM up on itch! I really like this project, it's a lot of fun to run. It's a super gonzo and fast way to play through modules that I otherwise never have a chance to run for friends.