The Gaming Den

Welp, I finally got these babies out of storage, so it's go time.


Hell. Fucking. Yes.

In Blood Valley, YOU are invited to take part in the annual hunt organized by the Firedrake, ruler of the Valley of Gad. Each year a slave is set free at an ancient circle of standing stones and hunted down like an animal by the cruel Firedrake. The only chance of survival for the slave is to escape the valley. Will you choose to be the Firedrake, hated by all his subjects and desperate to avoid the humiliation of defeat? He will go to any lengths to prevent the slave from escaping the valley. Or will you choose to be the quarry – the liberated slave who has been specially selected as good sport but who is armed only with resourcefulness and a strong will to live?

I've talked about Blood Valley and my affection for it before. I think it's by far the most successful of the Duel Master series. Partly that's because it's metal as all get-out: a dragon-man tyrant sport-hunting the most dangerous game. How the fuck this hasn't had a direct-to-video low-budget movie adaptation I will never know. (Although it did get a low-budget computer game adaptation.) Partly it's because the asymmetry is really engaging. The hunter has badass gear, a pack of hellhounds, villainous minions, and Victor von Doom's attitude; playing as him feels awesome. The quarry has... a head start; playing as them feels desperate, but also challenging in a good way.

I also recall it having a lot less lame anticlimactic game overs than the rest of the series.

Anyway, if you're down to participate in this year's hunt, let me know which end of the hellhounds you'd like to be on. As with The Shattered Realm, I'll make separate threads for the two competitors.

Team Hunter
Dr. Noface
Darth Rabbitt
Judging Eagle
SGamerz

Team Quarry
Mr. Shine
Starmaker
SlyJohnny

I'll join team asymmetric advantage

Playing as half-dragon Most Dangerous Game Guy is probably cooler but I'll take whatever side needs players more.

Well, with at least one person on each team, it begins. The hunter and quarry threads are open. The game will begin when team quarry picks a character. I'll give it a day for more people to sign up and such.

Some neutral info:

Combat
Each round, both participants roll two dice (plus Strike mods), and the higher roll wins. The winner rolls a single die (plus Damage mods) for damage: on a 1-5, the victim loses one Health Level (most PCs die after losing 6 HLs), on a 6 or 7, they lose 2 Health Levels, on an 8+, they lose 3 Health levels. Armor has a 1/3 chance of preventing 1 HL loss per hit.

Most enemies deteriorate as they are wounded and have a format like this:
MONSTER
Healthy (+1 Strike, +1 Damage)
Bruised (+1 Damage)
Wounded (-2 Strike)
Maimed (-2 Strike, -1 Damage)
Dead

The quarries have -1 Strike (-2 for the Priest) while they have no weapon, and the Thief has +1 Strike while she has a weapon. The Barbarian has +1 Damage. The Archveult has +2 Damage, and +2 Strike with his spiked mace.



A showdown between the hunter and the quarry is a bit more elaborate, but I'll go into that when it happens.

Hunting and Hiding
There are a lot of codes and records that I'll be doing behind the scenes. The quarry leaves scent and signs of passage that the Archveult's hounds can track, the Archveult has minions laid in ambush, if the two PCs are in the same place at the same time there's a fight, the quarry can hide and the hunter must successfully search to find them, and so on.

Time
Time is measured in WAITs, keeping the players roughly in synch. Each WAIT counts for one hour, and at this time of year, the Valley of Gad has fourteen hours of day and ten hours of night. Some things happen differently if it is day or night. Also, when a new day dawns, the hunter has an opportunity to redeploy his minions, and the quarry loses 1 Health Level to fatigue (see previous gif).

On the up side, if the quarry can find a hiding place, every three WAITs they spend hidden will restore one Health Level. It's a lot of lead time to lose, but it can definitely come up.

Oh wow.
I have this and wanted to run it when angel said his books were in storage, but then my scanner got 'borrowed'.
(I also have the whole redone Way of the Tiger collection, signed first printing, but I haven't read it either.)

Starmaker wrote:Oh wow.
I have this and wanted to run it when angel said his books were in storage, but then my scanner got 'borrowed'.
(I also have the whole redone Way of the Tiger collection, signed first printing, but I haven't read it either.)

Including book 7?

Game is started. Darth, you're on team hunter.

Silent Wayfarer wrote:

Starmaker wrote:Oh wow.
I have this and wanted to run it when angel said his books were in storage, but then my scanner got 'borrowed'.
(I also have the whole redone Way of the Tiger collection, signed first printing, but I haven't read it either.)

Including book 7?

Yes, I got the $375 tier of the kickstarter.

I know Team Hunter is overloaded right now, but I'd like to join them if you don't mind this being too lop-sided. I just love the ability to make minions do all my work, and these opportunities don't come up too often in gamebooks.

Not a problem.

Mind if I jump in on Team Quarry?

Knock yourself out.

Anyone on Team Hunter care to break the deadlock?

Combat between the quarry and the Archveult is like an unsexy Queen's Blade. Each round, each of you chooses one of the eight possible maneuvers, and the combination provides a bonus to one of you in that round's combat roll, and/or the possibility of an escape. Matrix below.

	Archveult's Move:	Charge/Chop	Cautious Jab	Sidestep Right	Sidestep Left	Slash Left	Slash Right	Parry/Riposte	Flee
Quarry's Move:
Charge/Chop		0	+3q	+3a	+3a	+2q	+2q	+2a	+4q
Cautious Jab		+3a	0	+2q	+2q	0	0	+3a	+3qE
Sidestep Right		+3q	+2a	0	0	+4a	+3q	+3q	E
Sidestep Left		+3q	+2a	0	0	+3q	+4a	+3q	E
Slash Left		+2a	0	+4q	+3a	0	0	0	E
Slash Right		+2a	0	+3a	+4q	0	0	0	E
Parry/Riposte		+2q	+3a	+3a	+3a	0	0	NC	NCE
Flee		+4a	+2aE	E	E	E	E	NCE	NCE

• If there's a bonus, the a or q following tells you whether the bonus is for the Archveult or the Quarry. A couple of the combinations also give damage bonuses, but those aren't in the table.
• E means fight the combat round (at any given modifier), then the flee-er escapes.
• NC means there is no strike roll that round, move on to the next round.
• NCE means there is no strike roll, flee-er escapes.

The hunt is ended. The climactic duel actually has no 'the end' entry to turn to, I suppose because it's self-explanatory. Both threads are now open info to all. Is anyone up for a rematch?

I would be up for another round. No preference which team.

I would be up for a rematch, either team.

While Darth's recovering from a rematch on Port of Peril, is there interest in another go at either this or Shattered Realm?

I'm in for another go at this one.

Yeah!

Two's all we need, pick sides.

Hunter'd be my preference, but I wouldn't mind trying the other side if SlyJohnny wants to switch sides.

I'll be human prey, it's all good.

Round 2 threads are up.