[Rq-rules] How did Tamoachan go? (spoilers possible)

[Styopa]

As a brief review for those interested, the party I was running through the
Tamoachan adventure converted to RQ performed probably even worse than
expected as a party, but the conversion seemed to work suitably.  As
anticipated, some of the ruses that were set up based on "D&D canon" were
meaningless, like the "green slime that's hanging" that turns out to be
simply inoffensive algae.  But most importantly the 'scaling' of the party
vs. encounter difficulty was just about right.

As mentioned before, it was a large party (8) but all inexperienced f2f RPG
players, 12-14 yrs old.

A few things stood out for me, as a longtime roleplayer watching kids who
really grew up on CRPGs:
- they tended to severely OVERestimate their capabilities.  A result of too
many CRPGs where the player is solo so the designers have buffed them to
heroic proportions?  This might just be a personality difference, but as I
recall being a beginner RPGer I tended toward overcaution - I remember our
party of 10 2nd lvl characters being terrified in B2 "Keep on the
Borderlands" when the DM mentioned that we were facing a (lone) 4th lvl
Cleric.  LOL
- verbal descriptions were problematic.  I may be overanalyzing, but when
they are used to a game 'cueing' them on what's clickable and what's not, it
seemed quite difficult for them to pick up cues buried in text.  They
certainly weren't overanalyzing anything.  It could be that they were all so
excited by what was going on generally, they tended not to listen very well
to the descriptions.
- a surfeit of choices: they tended to be paralyzed by NOT having a linear
format.  CRPGs tend to spoon-feed players with information about 'what's the
next step'.  I even would say that Tamoachan is actually a rather linear
adventure.
- a dearth of information: I was struck by the naivete of one of the players
when another character was blinded in the course of the adventure, and he
asked me "is blindness something that this game lets you cure?" - He wasn't
asking if there was a spell that could cure it, or if it was temporary...he
was clearly asking about the meta-rules.  They still haven't QUITE gotten
their heads around the idea that their ideas of real life logic can inform
them about what's possible and what's not (which is why I love RQ so much
more than D&D).

But that's getting off the track, I guess.  Everyone had a very good time,
great excitement and thrills.  Catastrophic fumbles that put the party's
survival in jeopardy, as well as one "OK....you only have a 5% chance to
dispel that effect, and if you don't he's going to die the next
round.....(player rolls).....05"  And there was much rejoicing.  :)

Lots left to do.  6 hours of play and they really only got through 5 rooms,
3 of which really had nothing happen in them....sigh.  It's a little tough
for me (as a DM); the group I play(ed) with had been playing together for 15
years, so we had developed very clear understandings amongst ourselves about
how we 'adventured' regardless of context, be it fantasy, science fiction,
or even superhero role-playing.  This group has none of those sorts of
things worked out, and I'd rather let them come to their own conclusions
than to simply tell them "here's how you divide treasure".

-Steve
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