Unturned Hovel

The Evil Labyrinth Retrospective

Press the Beast's summer campaign Evil Labyrinth of Gods and Monsters just wrapped up. I was present for most of the sessions and lost a good amount of characters to the dastardly dungeon. It was an "Arcade Style" game which has brought up a lot of discussion lately. I can't offer a comprehensive definition of the style of play or say that my explanation is definitive. That said I do have a decent idea of what it is not. A semi-often refrain about Arcade Play is about how that style of play ignores the world and the characters who inhabit it. This is simply not true. Even in our dozen or so sessions we had PCs with arcs and storylines going on like Dacian and his family trauma, Milo's turn to be a hero, and the hunger of the esteemed gentleman Bonhomme. Arcade Play pushes a focus on the dungeon. It does away with the uncertainty of what will happen next session and makes the assumption of play the crawl. And to support those assumptions Arcade Play really focuses on using the procedures in a system to propel play forward. (Proceduralism is also a thing granted, but Arcade Play does not have such a dedication to the entire logic and rhythm of the world being dictated by the dice.) Players are still encouraged to embody a character and pick apart at the world. It's just that for most of the campaign that will happen during a dungeon crawl. Though there are times when the scope of play extends outward from that. In EL we had a session with a climatic war game fight against a Giant Lord and his entourage of freaks and we busted out Delta's Book of War for that. But that digression from the Crawl was communicated to the players well in advance and wasn't something that just happened spontaneously in the middle of the session. Arcade Play is also a way for a GM to establish a campaign being relatively low prep because the material that will be used each week is fixed unless communicated ahead of time.

So that explanation out of the way what did I learn from being a player at the table?

  1. NBateman is a master class referee in how quickly he adjudicates situations and the level handedness of calls between players and monsters. The Evil Labyrinth was a cruel dungeon to crawl, the third level was stocked entirely with monsters that could petrify, but with cunning and luck we could content with foes like the dreaded Mr. Mozzerella or Fondue the Trapmaster.
  2. I really enjoy class based games and getting exp as a player but not running these kinds of games as GM. We ran an OD&D hack called SuperNatheQuest that had a dozen or so classes and tons of unique spells. This lent a certain kind of JRPG style of interaction with the game where the standardized equipment created a standard set of tactics eg. bombs being used to soften up packs before committing the first rank to melee.
  3. Though I can handle a large amount of players online I think my sweet spot going forward will be 3-5 players and will begin capping my games. EL had 13 players in one session at one point. It was insane. I've never played anything quite like it. And thought it was extremely chaotic we were able to get through things relatively quickly. What makes me want to cap my games though is that I think that giving equal attention to players is extremely difficult in a game so large. And it's also hard for all players to get a say in how things should proceed. There is a certain point where the playercount changes the game to being focused on the party and not the individual character.

Hype Moments and Aura

These are presented in no particular order except for Number One which is Number One.

  1. Final Fantasy Fukiyama dropping Dacian into the pit, stranding him and Milo to face Death on their own. With the rest of the body dead Milo and Dacian frantically summoned what allies they could with their magic and magic items and started casting Smites! Round by round they whittle Death down until Milo got off a final blast killing Death. But Death's scream sundered Milo's soul. Dacian alone lived to crawl out of the Labyrinth a hero. FFF left a coward dogged by his own personal history.
  2. The slurp battle between Bonhomme and another chef over a delicious monster.
  3. Dacian choosing to save Milifi the torch bearer over a party member when conquering Fondue the Trapmaster's final trap.
  4. Actual Mick Jagger and Blumpkin joining powers to enlarge a massive bell, wrack it with electricity, then drop it on top of a water bound Hydra frying it to death.
  5. Jenx burning down a plant wall and a bunch of longing dogs dying in an attempt to kill the cowboy Dark Odyssey.
  6. Tracking down the Demon Mr. Mozerella and slaying his cheesy evil ass.
  7. Dick D Nasty juicing up on steroids mega style and going crazy rage mode.
  8. Frank the Anointer standing toe to toe with the Dark Lord of Muscles and Love to buy us a few rounds to trap him. He was slain! The only PC to die in the big wargame battle, but we spent the gold to revive him and held a massive party before the final Delve into the Labyrinth. (Frank would then be killed by Death.)