Canyon Try-out

Jamie, George and I tried out our scenario for next Friday's Song of Blades and Heroes game today.  As a play-test it was really useful giving us and idea of how the game will play and what changes we need to make to improve it.

The scenario involves two groups of explorers (led respectively by the British Professor Threatener and the American Idaho James) trying to escape from the Lost Canyon of Oaxaca.  The pic below shows the canyon from its entrance where the riverboat Susanna Salcita (Saucy Sue) awaits.

The boat was guarded by Don Luis Habanero and his men.  They had built a makeshift fort from stores and brushwood to protect the landing area.  I need to build a gang-plank before Friday.

We used a card system to determine who moved when and what extra events occurred.  The Wild Thing! card would lead to animals arriving.  Idaho James's Chinese servant Wang was mauled by a tiger (a tiger in Mexico?).  Here we see the Countess Ilse Viktor rushing to his aid.
  

James, meanwhile, had got lost in the bush (another Wild Thing! result) where he was set upon by a Troglodyte chieftain.

Meanwhile, over the other side of the canyon, Professor Threatener had encountered a small, herbivorous dinosaur!

Back at the other end of the canyon, the Mexicans came under attack from a horde of troglodytes.  They briefly broke through the barricade but fled when one of their number was gruesomely killed in the melee.

One of the Mexicans heads off heroically to rescue
the Professor's daughter from quicksand.

"Deadeye" Idaho James takes out a Stegosaurus with a pistol shot to the head.

After three hours it was apparent that the explorers weren't going to make it.  We'll use a smaller table on the day and add some more Leader units to the troglodyte forces.  Overall I'm happy with how it went.