Playtesting Beneath Ahknoor - part 1
Character Generation
This week, I'm running a limited playtest of Beneath Ahknoor during my lunch hour when we're not playing other games.
Yesterday, we went through Character Generation, the Making Entry phase, and a little dungeon exploration in the Delving phase. (This represents two of the four phases of play.) Our next session will wrap up a short Delving phase, and cover the Getting Out and Above Ground phases.
Character generation is similar to the regular CfB-style, modified with ideas from https://riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2023/08/pointcrawling-character-creation.html
After naming and describing their adventurer, a player allocates 3 points among their attributes. Then each player chooses the starting location for their character, for example:
Harjet’s Ford
Description: A backwoods village on the northern frontier, Harjet’s Ford is a gathering place for trappers, hunters, and peddlers. Blustery winds drive lashing rain across the cabins and sod huts that make up the permanent structures surrounding the trading common where travelers gather to trade and tell tales.
Character Question: What memory of Harjet’s Ford is the measuring stick by which you see other communities as bigger and better than your home?
Move: Hedge Magik - once per Delving phase, can use a minor magik to grant Advantage on any roll except Unlocking. You must narrate the magik you use.
The players take turns reading the description of the location aloud and answering the Character Question. Then each player chooses a travel location their adventurer passed through on their way to the ruins of Ahknoor, for example:
The Necropolis at Okchit
Description: A deserted mesa, topped with mausoleums, ossuaries, and crypts representing civilizations from across the world and throughout the ages. The honored (or infamous) dead are brought here to rest, entombed for eternity. Untold riches and knowledge are hidden here as well - protected by the dead and by cunning traps.
Character Question: What tales led you here, and why will you never return?
Move: Whispers of the Dead - once per Delving phase, a spirit will whisper a truth to you that allows you to treat your next roll (other than on the Unlocking move) to be a 12+, if you make an appropriate sacrifice. Describe your sacrifice.
The players take turns reading the description aloud and answering the character question. After each player finishes answering, the Keeper and the other players name something the players have in their Pack. (This item will allow them to take advantage on a single roll during play.)
While it seems like a pretty simple system, we were all really happy with the playability and hooks each of the Adventurers possessed when we were done.
Does anything stand out to you from this short description? Is it something you’d like to try?