The Situations and the Guide S Words

The Situations and the Guide’s words

About 8 minutes per situation, including “the beginning” and “the end”, (64 minutes) 3 minutes between situations (pathway) (21 minutes). Total of 85 minutes in 95 minute meeting… pushing it!

The beginning is used by the Guiders to set out the rest, the end to clear up. We have to move through this fairly rapidly, so don’t dawdle.

Map points – entry, palace garden, dragon’s den, frog lake, troll bridge, witch’s hovel, portal

In italics – notes for leaders, background etc, use what you will of them Guide and characters improvise a lot to get the guides through this.

0 In the Beginning (in the kitchen)

On the counter: Character sheets, pens, costumes, 5 dice (totalling 30), some items (8 food items, main tools, gold, map)

Get them to put the costumes on, pick up their character sheets and leave their watches, phones etc in the kitchen (so they can’t tell time as we may need to stretch/shrink time but wear your own watches).

The Guide casts the dice and counts the spots and doubles them – that’s how many minutes she can spend with them.

Get them each to roll the dice and add the spots together – that’s their life (fill in on character sheets)

Start the main timer and the Guide timer when we say we’re ready.

Guide speaks:

You have fallen through into another world. On your entry, the portal has broken and five pieces of it have been scattered throughout this world. You need to recover the pieces and mend the portal to get home.

You have been cast into 6 roles according to the nature of this world. You are [pause for emphasis between each one] wizard, warrior, smith, spy, troubadour and healer. Each role has different skills and abilities.

During your trip through this world, you may find different items to carry – choose what you carry carefully as they will affect the outcome of your quest. Different items may be carried by different people. Some will tire you; others may kill if the wrong person carries them.

I am your Guide, but I can only appear to you a limited amount of time. I cannot affect this world, but merely give you advice from the plane of the Guides (where everyone who is well prepared may end up.) You will travel from location to location within this world, and you have merely 8 Earth minutes in each to win or lose your portal pieces. You will meet strange people and creatures and must work together to meet their challenges.

You have cast for life and the amount you start with is recorded on your character sheet.

Every situation you go into will cost life, especially doing magic or fighting, but life may be replenished by rest, food and healing. Resting out for one turn restores 2 life. Healing for one turn restores as much life as the healing skill level of the healer. Both require skipping that turn. One food item may be eaten between turns or during a rest or healing break. You must record the amount you have left whenever it changes.

Now choose and pick up what you will carry. You only have ____ minutes before we must move on, so choose quickly.

See the map, we are heading to the palace first.

Notes Each portal piece is magical – the wizard can carry these easily Keep an eye on their life and suggest rest (by sitting “out” a turn) or food – they are limited to how much they can carry so eating when they find it might make sense Note that gold coins are gold – the smith can carry any amount Note that hot and sweet food are both needed for scenarios – encourage to carry and not to eat or leave The portal pieces are glowstick bracelets. They need to realise this or be prompted.

Resting: skip 1 turn and restore 2 life Healing: healer and casualty skip 1 turn. Casualty has life restore equal to total healing skill of healer (doesn’t have to be Healer) Food: one item can be eaten between turns or during a rest/healing break. Food card is then put down. Show scenario and then they decide who participates and who rests (watches silently). Make sure they update their life after each turn

1 Palace Garden (pink)

In the garden the princess sits, bored, wearing a portal piece. She tells the fool to entertain her but the frog jokes do not amuse. Princess spots them and demands entertainment Princess mentions her family have disappeared and so her brother is no longer around to play with (spot hints for frog lake). Princess spots flute, and asks what it is Guide: Don’t do anything for free Guide: Barter portal piece for entertaining the princess Princess: offer a ball, the fool’s hat, a jewel etc but not the bracelet Guide: Do not replace the fool as you will lose a person Guide (only tell if they are looking hopeless): book of campfire songs will amuse, perhaps leave it with fool to entertain the princess Solution: leave campfire song book with fool, trade it for portal piece There’s the number 4 on the princess’ hat It costs 1 life to be in the palace

Guide: have them each deduct life from their character sheet

Pathway Find antidote, gold, oversee spell and diverse food and spells

2 Dragon’s Den (red)

Dragons are guarding their treasure, including the portal piece.

Guide: dragons seem unusually grumpy today, they’re usually quite friendly Dragons: one is moaning, is cold, and the other is breathing fire to keep the first warm Observe trap on dragon’s wing Guide: prompt re wing Solution: get well dragon to stop breathing fire so that Smith can remove trap, healer bandages wing, feed ill dragon some hot food to stimulate his appetite and fire Alternative: sneak around dragons to get portal piece – ends up with someone badly burned (lose 10 life) How dragon got trap on wing: evil witch has set traps in the forest canopy, she doesn’t like good creatures There’s a 3 in the treasure It costs 3 life to be in the dragon’s den

Pathway Find gold, water purification tablets, invisibility spell, facsimile spell

3 Troll bridge (orange)

Guide: the usual price here is 1 gold coin per person, 2 for wizards Guide: that troll looks a bit pale. Guide: trolls are known for their voracious appetite and ability to eat virtually anything without harm. A particularly strong poison might give them a stomach ache. They’ve got really sweet tooths too.

Troll has a stomach ache and is not happy Troll demands 5 gold per person and 10 for the wizard, rather than usual fee Observe: bottle of poison. Troll has taken poison. To cure tummy ache (and get across on usual fee and with portal piece he gives you in gratitude) need to persuade to drink antidote. Note, need honey and sweets to get him to drink the vile antidote. He found the poison bottle floating down the river.

It cost 2 life to be by the bridge. If anyone attempted to cross the river not on the bridge, it cost 20 life. The troll has a 7 on his top

Pathway Find sneak cloak, facsimile spell Armoury Pick 4 items from the face down cards

4 Frog lake (green)

On a small island in the middle of the lake are 3 royal frogs – a king, queen and prince. The lake is poisoned and if you jump onto a lily pad, it dissolves. They can jump on and off quickly enough but they can’t figure out a route to shore. They have to get home to fight off the witch who is trying to take over the land. The trouble is, we can’t see what pattern the lily pads take to plan a route and they can jump different distances. The prince can jump a distance of one lileap, the queen two and the king 3 (a lileap is a frog unit of measurement)

Solution: use oversee spell to get map of lily pads, figure out route and use facsimile spell to send copies of the map with the route in to each of the frogs. They give you portal piece from one of their crowns as a reward.

Pathway Find diverse spells and food

5 Dungeon (blue)

In a dungeon room is a sleeping lion. Behind him are two boxes with locks on. One is a combination lock and the other a key lock. There are lots of keys around. Solution: use observed numbers to unlock combination lock, use key in that box to open the other and get the portal piece and a clue to the portal combination. Use sneak cloak to take spy into room, remainder rest and gain life (2 restored). Costs 5 life to be in room, costs 10 life more if the lion awakens.

Pathway Find diverse spells and food

6 Sorceress’s Lair

Sorceress has as many portal pieces as they didn’t get and (in suspended animation) anybody who died along route. Guides must fight Sorceress and minions in a turn based fight. Sorceress only fights with magic, minions only fight physically. [Guides need to team up to win. Evil side will fix it so they have to win, but not make it obvious]

During the battle reanimate anyone in suspended animation. They have to wait 2 turns of the battle before they can participate.

Attack points = weapons (or teeth/claws) plus strength Block points = armour plus agility Magic attack points = spell attack plus magic Magic block points = spell block plus wit How the battle works: Evil works alone, good can work together Evil attacks first Physical and magical attacks happen separately so the guides must choose who does magic and who physical (using merge and adding the healer’s power to the wizard is sensible as the healer does not fight at all) It is sensible to chose those with a lot of attack points for attacks, and those with a lot of armour to block. The spells that can be done by 1 side in 1 turn (attack or block) is determined by how much (combined) magic skill the caster(s) have.

The evil side attacks by putting forward one minion for a physical attack (cannot block next go). The guides block with their characters chosen to block (these cannot attack next go) and any shield cards The total attack points are added up, and the total block points. If attack points are greater than block points then the difference is how many life is lost from the Guides (split between the blockers as they choose) Attack points = weapons (or teeth/claws) plus strength Block points = armour plus agility

The sorceress attacks with magic The guides block with their characters chosen to do magic (first go, I suggest they do a merge and a shield) The total attack points are added up, and the total block points. If attack points are greater than block points then the difference is how many life is lost from the Guides (split between the blockers as they choose) OR how much is lost from the shield spell if used. (No life lost while shield spell in place). Magic attack points = spell attack plus magic Magic block points = spell block plus wit

The good side attack by putting forward their characters chosen to block (cannot block next go). The evil side selects one minion to block (cannot attack next go). The total attack points are added up, and the total block points. If attack points are greater than block points then the difference is how many life is lost from the minion. Attack points = weapons (or teeth/claws) plus strength Block points = armour plus agility

The good attack with magic (or do a reanimate spell). The sorceress blocks. The total attack points are added up, and the total block points. If attack points are greater than block points then the difference is how many life is lost from the Sorceress or her shield. Magic attack points = spell attack plus magic Magic block points = spell block plus wit 7 The end

Put the 5 portal pieces together The order? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue clockwise The clue: “With the clock the portal turns, in colours of light and rain, our wanderers each homewards yearns, and they shall be home again”

Then we get to tidy up!