I thought people might be curious as to how True Horde went, here are my notes from Friday's True Horde.
Obviously there is NOTHING BUT SPOILERS below - in case True Horde is presented at GenCon or elsewhere, read no further if you don't want to know...
True Horde Unofficial Spoilers
Thanks to Eric, Raven, Stu, Jeff, and everyone else who contributed to a great event!
This pertains to the Friday night Horde.
Initially a cultist in a black robe greeted us in front of a large combat board, held up by multiple tables. Behind the combat board was a black and red throne, with foot height at the top of the tables for the combat board. Behind that was a movie screen onto which an cloudscape scene was played. Ominous music played through a PA system.
The cultist explained that we had been drinking and celebrating, when things got a bit out of hand and we began smashing up stuff - we broke a certain decanter and a mist arose and we were teleported to the lair of the Jeffegorgon.
The Jeffegorgon, emerged: A tall and imposing figure cloaked in black robes, devil red face, and horns, holding a war hammer. Jeffegorgon ascended to the throne and combat began.
The combat board itself was large, perhaps 6 feet wide and 18 feet long. It was made of a rolled up vinyl like surface.
Initially we were not fighting the Jeffegorgon, but his two minions, who were represented by dinner plate size laminated monster print outs placed about half way up the combat board: maybe 6-9 feet from the base of the board.
The party was divided into 3 groups of 10. Each group was managed by its own combat DM, and played largely independently of the others (although rounds were synchronized).
Jeffegorgon had a microphone and his sharp tongue found targets.
Room 1:
Fighting the two minions, both were flying creatures. One focused on melee, and one on spells for their offense.
Whenever either attacked it effected all 30 people in both parties (not sure if you could avoid targeting with invisibility, cloak of blending, etc.)
Each dealt damage in the range of 30 points per hit. There were a variety of types of damage on the spell side, but I do not recall specifics.
Room 2:
Having defeated the minions, the rest of the combat board was revealed, featuring the enthroned Jeffegorgon, and a black strip across the board beneath the throne.
We attacked, only to be told that the Jeffegorgon was protected by a force field and our attacks were ineffective.
In the next round many people attacked the black strip representing the force field, but that also was ineffective.
3-4 rounds in with some experimentation and DM hints we determined that there were 4 circular targets on the Jeffegorgon's throne which were weak points, and we could only damage the Jeffegorgon after having scored a hit on each of them (this was an on the fly modification, the original ideas was that damage was dealt only if there was a puck on all 4 targets, but that proved to be too difficult for our team to achieve).
The Jeffegorgon attacked several times with various effects, see the appendix below.
Room 3:
Having disabled the shield, we began to attack the Jeffegorgon again, only to find that his war hammer was absorbing all the blows.
??I'm not certain if we needed to be hitting the war hammer on the combat board to deal damage, or if this was just thematic explanation - as the war hammer was a 19 so hits to it may have just been hits against a high AC??
The Jeffegorgon attacked several times with various effects, see the appendix below.
Room 4:
Having destroyed the Hammer, it was down to business. The Jeffegorgon's discarded hammer lay on the combat board, blocking some slots (although as it turned out I think it was actually a pretty effective backstop landing tokens on the Jeffegorgon's head which was an 18).
Jeffegorgon, in a maneuver you should not try at home, stood from his throne on the wobbly and precarious folding tables and continued to taunt us.
2-3 rounds later it was all over, the Jeffegorgon lying vanquished by the Horde (or, perhaps also by the benevolent forces of the GMs who may have made a few adjustments in our favor).
The Jeffegorgon attacked several times with various effects, see the appendix below.
Jeffegorgon attacks appendix:
(Here is what I remember)
Melee attack targeting all for 30
Missile attack of bladed treasure coins targeting all for 30, players were given the chance to grab the treasure coins (this was all a story description, there were no physical coins), those who did were turned into ducks! Duckification could be reversed by remove curse, such as Potion Moonveil or Censer of Sacrifice.
Acid Splash hitting all players for really, a lot, it might have been 30 unmodifiable?
Multiple breath / AOE style attacks that hit for ~30 with reflex save for half.
Darkstain attack, if save failed you had Darkstain and could not be healed (condition removable by remove curse).
Melee attack for 30 that also entailed a Reflex save, if save failed player was knocked prone and could either attack at -4 or spend a round standing up - "Free Movement" did not prevent this.
At one point the Jeffegorgon issued a directed attack at a Monk from team Raven who had critted Jeff in the 20 (which was his left eye - a spot the size of a quarter on the combat board).
Overall threat DCs and monster to-hit were very, very high. I spoke with Eric and he said he used Epic Grind as a baseline. I failed multiple saves with save modifiers of +20 or better. People with AC of ~40 were being hit frequently.
There was a very even mix of melee, missile, spell, and breath weapon/area of effect effects that offered a reflex save for half (of none for those wily 5th level monks and anyone else with improved evasion).
The combat combat board was long, but had a large 18 (head) two large 19s (hammer and empty hand), and the 20 was right in the middle of the 18, so not the worse combat board in terms of hitting high numbers.
