SDL TAK Chapter 1 PlaytestMy wife agreed to (eventually) playtest ONE chapter of SDL after I did a bunch of good hubby/daddy things. I used my Father's Day request to play it ahead of my group playtest coming up later this week. It only took 1.5 hours!
Gathering the materials for our first SDL! Playtest The Ashen Knight (TAK) from @Holy Cross

Picking Hero Classes. My wife selected:
Moana (Questing Knight using Silver Chevalier model), Elsa (Glimmerdusk Ranger), and Anna (Tabbybrook Water Mage). She opted for no background/story and didn't really want to name them.

Moana, Elsa, and Anna make short work of the *Dream* zombies. Note that this is the newer version that does not have Road to Crystalia as the start.

After disembarking from the airship, they make their way to Outskirts Tavern. They are thoroughly confused with what to do in exploration mode, but manage to talk to the Bartender, Alexander, and the local Drunk. They immediately go to sleep when given the chance.

They awake in the Tavern to Ashen monsters knocking on their doors!

Despite being thoroughly upset that the monsters KEEP SPAWNING, the heroes are able to defeat multiple waves of monsters (and avoid falling when leaping tables and counters) through Anna's skillful use of Arcane Blast and make it to the LOCKED door.

Elsa is unable to pick the lock, but Moana smashes the door off its hinges. Surprisingly, the door magically restores itself after the party makes it through and the monsters are unable to smash it themselves.

The heroes escape into the cellar and need a little help finding the secret door behind the barrels.

Elsa is VERY upset there are MORE MONSTERS. Anna calmly blows away multiple Ashen Bones using Arcane Blast as the party makes their way to the door.

Moana fends off the Ashen Bones while Elsa and discover the door is PERMA LOCKED. WHY IS THIS EVEN HERE?!?

The heroes make a mad dash to the ferries (aka multipurpose doors) and flee as more Ashen monsters arrive in the secret cellar.

The party awakes and find themselves on a mysterious dock. Another Exploration phase ensues where Anna jumps on the dock to see what happens, Moana examines a tile that...is just a wall (but looks like it should go somewhere!), and Elsa accidentally pushes and shoves open the door.

The party finds themselves in a room with...Ziggi. Elsa taps Ziggi on the head with her bow while Anna brushes Ziggi's hair. Moana kicks Ziggi's butt, which elicits a corresponding ZAP!! The party is unfamiliar with how/what to do when confronted by a talking statue and eventually ask about Ark. Ziggi gets bored and shoo's the party along and tells them to go back to the Tavern to clear up the monsters.

The party is VERY upset that this tile is SO BIG. There are SO MANY MONSTERS. The party would rather be elsewhere, but it is Father's Day and this is what we agreed to play. The Ashen Monsters FINALLY win an initiative roll and start advancing against the heroes.

Unfortunately for the Ashen Monsters, Anna's Arcane Blast is VERY GOOD at multiple melting skeletons. Elsa and Moana are also able to cover Bone Piles to prevent the Ashen Mage from Raising more skeletons. Our pet, Buster, and joined the party, but as SDL does not have Pet Parade rules yet, he is only a cosmetic member of the party.

The Ashen Skeletons are able to close on the party, but are unable to wound the heroes due to well above average 2B rolls. Anna continues to melt bone face while Elsa and Moana coordinate to gain engaged bonuses and chip away at the higher ARM and HP monsters.

The party is victorious and enter the Outskirts Tavern to find...Alexander, surrounded by monsters!

Alexander does a costume change and....

Reveals himself to be Ser Ark and Blows away the skeletons! Buster is disturbed from his nap!

The party kind of listens to the explanation of Ser Ark, but are really just focused on their sweet Loot and Rank Up to B heroes.

TAK Bestiary I made for my own use:

It's in my google drive in the discord if folks want to use. I don't *think* it has any mistakes, but @Holy Cross is updating his materials so who knows what the final version will be

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Hero FeedbackMy wife has zero RP much less PnP RP experience and although she is a fan of the SDE chibi models and slaying monsters, she is not a fan of playing games that have monsters, fighting in general, or really anything that is 'scary' (for which she has a low threshold). She has played SDE 1.0, FK Arcade, and SDE 2.0 Arcade and is familiar with the combat portions of SDE.
She picked up the new combat rules pretty quickly and was able to understand/use the engagement bonus on her own by the final encounter. Since monsters are so weak in this campaign, there wasn't much status effect wise to worry about.
She said she enjoyed the non-combat encounters more than the combat encounters, but was frustrated because she really didn't know what to 'do'. This experience may also have something to do with me also having practically 0 PnP RP experience much less as a Consul.
She REALLY HATED the first combat encounter as it has the same issues she has with spawn points in general, in that when she defeats a monster, she feels it should STAY DEAD. It removes her accomplishment for defeating monsters if they just come back!
She enjoyed the combat encounters that did not have an endless wave of monsters spawning b/c she felt like her defeating monsters made a difference. She liked it better that the Mages never actually attacked because they spent all their time Raising skeletons. She also liked that she did NOT have to defeat all the monsters and she could just run away and she would always prioritize running to an objective if possible.
Although she was reluctant to name her heroes in the beginning, I pressed her on this and it made is much easier for her and I to interact when her heroes had names and identities. The names have meaning to her and helped her become immersed in her heroes' part in the campaign.
She did not really understand what was happening/what she needed to do and needed guidance at the start of each encounter (which is sometimes difficult when something's supposed to be a secret or surprise).
All in all, she "didn't
hate it", which is better than what she usually says after a game of Super Dungeon (even though we always win - mostly she's just always stressed out b/c there are monsters until the end of the game). She did say she'd consider playing the next chapter and prefers the game with a narrative, but definitely not over Charterstone (which checks off almost all the boxes for types of games she likes).
She was also confused why I didn't play 'with her' as a hero as I did in SDE 1.0 before Arcade mode existed (I'd basically be the Consul, but also play a hero). I let her know that I get an NPC in the next chapter so I CAN play with her.
Consul FeedbackIt wasn't too tough to DM for the first time. Granted, I had one player and had read TAK Ch. 1 multiple times and prepped my own tiles, monster cards, and read through the SDL multiple times (I like to be prepared), it's very different when you're ACTUALLY doing it in real time and have to execute and react to the atmosphere.
I was able to add a few elements (like the door closing in outskirts tavern with the skeletons failing to break it down with a 3STR test even with engaged bonus) since I could tell my wife was just DONE with fighting infinite spawning skeletons.
I know that my wife is loot oriented so I prepped some SDE 2.0 Loot cards (very similar to FK loot cards with a few changes) and made a deck of mostly +B stat gear to reward her between encounters.
Despite all the prep I did, I didn't have everything memorized and TAK does not have a final layout so I did have to spend some time reading through passages to figure out what exactly was happening/would happen next/why something DIDN'T happen that I remembered (@Holy Cross either wrote it out of the version I had, there was a mistake, or I just remembered it wrong).
I felt significantly more comfortable DM'ing TAK over one of the SDL Beta adventures (despite having read through those 3 times) b/c these had simpler mechanics and I'd spent a lore more time going through these materials, but I'd vastly prefer to not need to invest/prep so much before running an adventure.
I preferred to use the Arcade values (I made some up for the monsters and they worked ok - most of them basically ARE arcade values. I just feel it's easier to know what to roll to attack/defend for heroes when it's not changing every turn minus the engage bonus).
Campaign FeedbackI like the change to cut Road to Crystalia (which I think is an AWFUL adventure) to the dream room. My wife HATED that the adventure starts with a fight. She had a lot of trouble understanding the setting, what was happening, etc. She's more of the point and go player where she relies on someone else to figure out the objective and she goes and slays the crap out whatever's in the way.
Encounter A is currently very open ended and we just had one round of 2 Swampies and 1 Pudge since we knew how to fight. We skipped status effects b/c there are practically none in Chapter 1 and I feel like this should ideally require more structure. My wife did not...retain? any story b/w Encounter A and Encounter B since it's all auditory. It may be nice to have the letter be a separate thing printed I can HAND her so she can reference in the next Encounter.
Encounter B does not have a map, despite there being a map available, so I used it and set up the characters. My wife is used to being able to 'see' things on the board without having to roll dice to check surroundings and doesn't really get the concept of 'investigate' and roll dice unless there's a specific token/icon on the map (like in Stuffed Fables) that indicates a point of interest. This is something that could be worked in, but I expect most folks used to RP games will not need this (but I greatly appreciate having it in Stuffed Fables). She thought the Local Drunk was funny, but didn't get any of the story hooks b/c she doesn't know what is important to pay attention to and just kind of 'waited' for the story to progress.
Encounter C has the overhead map in the Consul campaign material - I don't have a good way of sharing it and I don't think it necessarily has impact 'within' chapter 1. I think when you play the other chapters and have the overall map printed out and can show the party where they're going/have been (kind of like Gloomhaven Scenarios, I guess), then it has more impact, but my wife has no background or Lore nor is the type to care so it was a bit wasted on her.
Anna the Mage was absolutely brutal. I recommended a Water mage so her party would have on demand healing and Arcane Blast is pretty darn good against hordes of 0W ARM monsters. The map in the Consul campaign material is different dimensions from the actual tiles I got with the pretty new art (which look horrible printed in B&W), so I ad libbed some of the placement. I don't know why this encounter had SO MANY DOORS. I'm using basic doors from Swords and Sorcery (no hero quest furniture for me) and I know that SDL is supposed to come with Door tokens (like GH), but we got a LOT of use out of the door stands.
So basically the heroes had 4 attacks each turn and would defeat a bunch of skeletons and this campaign doesn't have tuning for # of heroes yet. I forgot to have the monsters move 2 squares after they spawned since it was more thematic for them to just 'reappear' and maybe respawn, just indicate that they spawn from the spawn pool and have a specific limit (2 ashen knight, 4 ashen bones).
We never explored Alexander's room b/c there is no indication/reason to do so. I think there'd be better direction given to get to the cellar rather than search the rooms, etc. (my wife wanted to run out of the Inn, but I didn't want her to waste her time b/c I knew she'd hate this encounter). She did jump on the furniture and she did get one critical success (5 stars DEX) so I gave her +1W on her missile attack (acrobatically leapt on the counter, knocked her bow, and blew the skull off an Ashen Bones).
Having the door @ 5 locked did add a sense of urgency since the party had to use actions to open the door rather than defeat skeletons. She was upset when Elsa failed to pick up, but it was fun to have Moana critically succeed (5 stars) and toss the door into the air.
For encounter D, as a Consul, I really hated trying to figure out what to do. You don't set up the monsters until the heroes get to 2. But 7 is referenced between 4 and 5 as AFTER the monsters are defeated, THEN explore. It was not clear that the monsters must first be defeated, THEN the heroes can explore/escape, and THEN there may be more monsters spawning at 7. I haven't read past Chapter 3, but unless the door has some bearing in TAK, then I assume it is a red herring, which is ok, but maybe it needs to be more clear to the Consul (I know, you hadn't written all the material yet at this point).
We both really enjoyed making the doors into boats and floating them away from the dock. I was thinking it might make sense to literally make Ferry/Boat tokens or cards that can be printed/added to this adventure b/c it's a bit odd to go to the dock beside the empty water and be like, oh, look, here's this boat I definitely couldn't see before. Again, having points of interest tokens/indicators can help give direction here.
The AI for the Ashen Mages could maybe use tweaking. Since they prioritize raising Rattlebones, the heroes can just keep killing rattle bones if they are not forced to kill the mages. I had 0 mages use a magic attack, which I think is ok, but they also didn't have the same 'prioritize killing this monster'. I think if they raised ALL bone piles in range 3 then that'd make a big difference, but then I'd probably decrease ARM to 0W and HP to 3 so the heroes have an easier time killing it like an active spawn point.
Also, if the skeletons can't swim and they didn't come down into the cellar when the heroes went down, HOW DID THEY GET THERE?! I think there maybe needs to be a modification that as the heroes get to a certain point in the cellar, the skeletons follow them down and they have the option of defeating them OR just running. Given there is no XP/Loot to be had by killing them, I think this is ok.
Encounter E was ok. My wife liked that I used a model to represent the statue and would pick up her hero models and do things TO Ziggi. She did NOT like being zapped. I think the heroes should be able to REST and heal before encountering Ziggi since my wife noted her heroes were wounded so Ziggi could have killed them (which she of course did not). It was the THIRD and FOURTH door she encountered that she needed to get through so she was a bit confused why she had to go through one door to get to Ziggi just to have Ziggi open the door for them. She did not ask any of the typical questions/prompts so I had to ad lib a bunch and she finally asked about Ark (remember, my wife doesn't really think of this whole chapter as a mission to meet ARK so much as a spend time with my husband until he lets us stop playing). I think, if she ever plays more chapters, that she'll be delighted with the return of Ziggi and her role in later chapters.
And, of course, she asked Ziggi what her favorite color is, and it is PURPLE.
Encounter F I was really worried about b/c it's a HUGE tile and lots of monsters. It's SUPER IMPRESSIVE to me. My wife was like WHAT IS HAPPENING?!. The giant tile, although impressive, ended up being a lot of wasted space. With the Consul winning initiative all the combat basically happened on one side of the tavern and my wife's party was never in any real danger because aside from Elsa's missile attacks whiffing a lot, she defended against multiple attacks, even those with engage bonus, and Anna's Arcane Blast hit EVERY SINGLE TIME EVERY SINGLE TURN and melted the Ashen Boneheads and the Ashen Bones into Slag before she eventually melted the Ashen Knights, too while Moana and Elsa took out the Mage.
At this point I've been giving my wife 3 loot to pick 1 from and she had +1 STR on Moana (did not make a significant difference) and +1 ARM on Elsa (helped make 1 extra save). So Anna the Mage is just killing everything as a raw C Rank hero o.O.
We both liked that the monsters were a known quantity. By having them spread out it allowed the heroes to defeat them in waves and fight on multiple fronts, but I think a better/more efficient tile solution could be done for this, like monsters don't move until certain groups are defeated or they 'show up' after others are defeated (although I know my wife hates the idea of monsters spawning).
Encounter G was a bit anti-climactic. My wife did NOT suspect that Alexander was ARK and was like LIAR! when he revealed himself. She also, I'm sure, did not 'get' that Asche was in the cellar. She was also confused by what the mission was to be about and whether ARK was even coming with them. She does not know where any of the places or things that's mentioned in the final text are so she was like...ok. Are we done?
Also, it doesn't use a tile, but a tile exists so I think this should be part of the official module to make the best use of it! I think, personally, all non-combat modules should probably use models and the tiles, etc., but that's b/c I still see this as a miniatures game, even in RP form.
She enjoyed ranking up. She liked drawing the dice in the boxes and drew hearts for blues

. She did not like writing in the abilities in the beginning. I hated trying to find anything in the hero handbook b/c it's so awfully organized, so I used my spreadsheet and it helped a lot b/c I could also show her what the ability was instead of just 'saying' it to her without having to rifle through 61 pages.
SDL FeedbackSo, surprisingly, I think it's good. I think some of the stuff that's missing, like the Backpack, items, crafting, wonders, etc. are probably not necessary, but it'd be *nice* to have some official items b/c I really dislike having to homebrew make up my own stuff and then see what others have done and kibbitz on it b/c it's different balance/power level then I'd prefer. Heck, it may even make sense to have a sticker set to peel and stick to make your own items/equipment, etc.
I am STILL SAD that the hero cards aren't used. My wife, surprisingly, did not give me grief about this like she has in the past.
I am upset the dashboards are so inefficient. @dragonred7's template my wife really liked and she didn't understand why I didn't print them in color after seeing the templates and I'm like...but printer ink! Anyways, she liked the dashboards being big and didn't think they needed to be downsized. The resized ones I used seem fine with the heart and potion icons and JUST LIKE SDE MODELs they don't fit perfectly, but they fit. I will most likely focus on making shorthand 'bestiary' style cards for hero NPCs. One downside of resizing them is that it reduced the already tiny space to write the abilities. Just for this reason, unless I always have a reference ready, I feel like I SHOULD make a grid based dashboard that is more lenient/allows for the text.
As noted before, combat went VERY quickly. The heroes are VERY fragile at rank C, but my wife rolled really well and never needed any of her potions. I think the monsters could be harder, but it's hard to say with RNG.
In terms of playing as the Consul, these are the resources I think I need to have available:
1) How to Play
2) Hero Handbook OR SDE classes reference (I have a link to this in my google drive on discord)
3) Campaign Book (TAK Chapter 1)
4) Tiles (printed these out or a digital solution I wasn't willing to pay $100 for monitor that had an actual viewing angle)
5) All the SDE tokens and things
6) Dice! My wife wanted to know when we get to use the new Citrine/Amethyst dice and was crestfallen to hear you need to be rank XS to get them atm.
7) Models list and bestiary -- have a model list for the campaign for monsters, NPCs, and of course those for heroes. I think this is vital to prep so you're not digging for models to set up all the time.
8) Custom tokens/stands? The doors were REALLY FUN and easy objectives to see. I am tempted to just use Gloomehaven tokens for future adventures as I don't have anything else atm. I've seen some papercraft options, but I'm going to plan to keep it simple (for now).
9) Loot/Treasure -- my personal plan is to focus on Loot for now until the power level calls for treasure equipment to be given, but a lot depends on the balancing of the monsters
10) Computer for reference materials (mostly SDE class references).
I surprisingly never needed to look at the Consul Grimoire for this playthrough.
So...we'll see how this Friday goes with the next playtest.