Beer & Pretzels & BEAN!
The Town Hall, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire May 14/15 2011
Sunday - BEAN!: Fabassea the City on the Sand
BEAN! The D2 Role-Playing game.
Day 2 of gaming at Beer & Pretzels and we moved on to playing Jeff Freels' excellent D2 role-playing game BEAN! With some trepidation I had written a simple quest adventure for 3 or 4 characters to attempt and could perhaps conclude in just a few hours. This is Fabassea the City on the Sand.
Sunrise over Tarrrho Towers heralding another great day of role-playing.
This was going to be the first time in over 20 years that I had been GM for a group including strangers as well as friends and family. The guests, Peter and Chris, had expressed an interest in our T & T session the previous evening and having recovered from the disappointment of not getting to play the best role-playing game in the world they were only too happy to join in the BEAN!fest.
After what I am sure my fellow players would admit was a bit of a ropey start to my game mastering I settled back in and the adventure began to move onwards. If I say so myself I did a fine job of taking on the persona of the dodgy mapmaker and really started to get into the game.
Darrgh and Jason M role-playing with gusto.
My hat is most certainly off to the group of players who as well as having to put up with me as gamemaster were having to learn the rules to a game they had never played before. They all got stuck in and made significant allowances for my own lack of experience with this system. I think by the time they had sourced all the equipment and supplies for their journey across The Great Ash Sea I had managed to get an approach that seemed to chime with the rules.
The intrepid team of BEAN!ers discuss their next move.
As the morning passed on into early afternoon the 4 beanfolk characters crossed the desert on a flying carpet and despite Jason's obvious novice skills as a pilot of such a vehicle they managed to avoid serious mishap to arrive at the Shrine of Hato'o. At this point I have to heap some praise on Chris who did some really sneaky, roguish things behind her companions' backs before going into the small tunnel complex that makes up the shrine. Apparently she had played quite a lot of D & D in her university days but that didn't seem to hold her back from some first class role-playing.
Darrgh junior, Jason M, Peter and Chris are stumped by the final puzzle.
The intrepid party was soon making mincemeat of the challenges that the shrine had to offer and I was a bit concerned that the delve would be over almost before it had begun but then they set off a trap and struggled their way out into more strife so their progress was slowed considerably. Suffice it to say they eventually got to the enchanted fountain at the heart of the shrine not too worse for wear and then rather surprisingly struggled for some time with the final puzzle I had set before eventually succeeding in their quest.
The BEAN! crew.(L-R) Boozer, Jason M with halo, Darrgh junior, Darrgh plus Peter and Chris who had asked to join in the previous evening.
And so only the second BEAN! adventure to be run in the UK (to my knowledge anyway) came to a successful conclusion. The players seemed to have enjoyed themselves and I had certainly had a whale of a time returning to GM a role-playing session after a rather too long break. I only hope it isn't another year before I get to do so again.
Jeff Freels' fabulous BEAN! avatar of Darrgh Tarrrho specially produced for Beer & Pretzels. For more of his art go to www.Jeffwerx.com
Finally, I must say a huge thank you to Mr Jeff Freels: Artist and Game Designer extraordinaire. Without his inspired idea to invent a D2 role-playing game I might never have got the chance to have such fun on a blustery Sunday in May in Burton-on-Trent. Long may his quill be well dipped!
Darrgh Tarrrho (Sid Orpin)
May 2011