Editing User:Bill/Rifts Week by Week/Series One Notes (section)

==Session Two - August 15, 2011==
I was quite nervous about my second session. Rachel and Dylan had both told me that they would not be present, and not knowing Tess well it seemed likely that I would be killing the evening by myself. Fortunately for me, Dylan's plans fell through and Tess brought Chewie along. I attempted to cajole another guy into joining, but he was reluctant to take part and doubly reluctant to use a pregenerated character. About a half hour in, I had a kid somewhere around 12 years old ask to join in. I turned him down on grounds that we were already into the meat of the session, but to be honest I am reluctant to bring a minor into the group. If he asks again, I'll tell him that I need to get his parents' permission before he can join. The last thing I want is to have an angry parent yelling at me because I am corrupting his or her child with my language or violent role-playing game. Anyway...

This session really was about the player characters gathering information on Scaeduwe. Dylan and Tess continued with the characters that they played last session, Chewie elected to play Jimena. I am thankful that he went that direction because it permitted me to give the group a lot more information than they would have gotten with one of the technologically focused characters. Some important details that were gathered; Scaeduwe has been standing at least sixty years, the alien trees that the elves are protecting extend almost exactly twenty miles in all directions from the city, the trees act as powerful PPE collectors, so powerful in fact that they effectively consume a ley line that formerly crossed the border of the forest, and that Wisfæst Dökkálfar is a powerful supernatural being. 

The session also involved a brief fight with a werewolf and its fenryr allies, and Peta blindly lashing out at one of the trees to see what would happen; she got blasted with a huge energy discharge. Shortly after her attack on the tree, the elves attempted to take the group into custody. The cyborg dramatically leapt from the top of the central tower and scaled the city wall to escape while Jimena used her jetpack to evade pursuit by taking to the air. JW was interrupted during his breakfast and locked in the stockade. If not for his disarming manner, he would likely have been left to rot there. Fortunately the grackle managed to convince Wisfæst Dökkálfar that he could insure his friends wouldn't join forces with the necromantic menace. 

Mounted on the back of an enormous draft horse, JW caught up with his companions; the cyborg's trail was far from challenging to follow. After bringing his partners up to speed on the elves' concerns, Jimena's sixth sense alerted her to a nearby threat. As a group all three realized that they had been surrounded by terrible necromantic monsters. Stitched together horrors made of man, elf, monster and animal parts confronted them on all sides. And that's where I left it. I love a cliff hanger. 

Overall, I was pleased with how the session went and the feedback from the players was positive. Chewie indicated that he would be returning and that he wants to make his own character. The fight with the werewolf ended faster than I expected. Jimena happened to be in the right place at the right time to decapitate the monster before it could present a credible threat. Ironically, she was also the only character that could actually harm him. Partly this is due to my ruling that headshots are automatic critical strikes. I don't intend to change that rule, though I may revise some MDC values to compensate for it a little. I'm shooting for a delicate balance between a short, exciting, battles and threats that are genuinely dangerous. Under the normal rules, combat seems to drag so something needs to be adjusted.