DF Khoramandu Sea, Session 75 - Grappling a Berserker

Due to the coronavirus lockdown, we once again played remotely using Hangouts. I don't use a VTT; when I need to show the battlefield, I use paper maps and minis, and point a webcam at the table.

Session Date: Thursday 6 August 2020

Party roster:
Miao Miao, cat-folk swashbuckler, 411 points (PC)
- Jenkins, human servant, 204 points (NPC Ally)
- Brother Warian, human monk (initiate), 204 points (NPC Ally)

Sir Yvor Gryffyn, human knight, 347 points (PC)

Davin Emberwood, human wizard, 342 points (PC)

Childerbert "Bert" Ingoberger, halfling locksmith (thief), 287 points (PC)
Hemmu Gahrol, half-orc knight, 275 points (PC)

Adam Aesalor, half-orc wizard, 257 points (PC)

We just finished a session tonight. No doubt some of my players will write a more interesting report, but here are my immediate thoughts:

The session was basically one long fight of about 4 hours. The majority of the battle was against a small number of berserkers (with a small horde behind them in the distance). On the PCs' side was an NPC giant that they had just aided.

 After the 4 enemy berserkers were down, the party had to deal with the berserker on their own team (Hemmu, the half-orc knight), who was otherwise going to single-handedly charge the enemy horde. Hemmu failed all her control rolls for Berserk (9 or less on 3d6), and passed all her HT rolls to resist death and unconsciousness. She would have been unstoppable until she died at -5xHP.

 It took 2 PCs and the giant to grapple Hemmu and prevent her running off to fight the advancing horde (and almost certain death). The group weren't free to simply hold Hemmu and wait until she calmed down. They knew there wasn't time before the next wave of enemies arrived.

 The party had to strangle Hemmu down to -HP to cause her to pass out. Once she got past 0 FP this meant further HP loss. Then further HP loss at the end of the actual fight, as Hemmu had no fatigue points to lose.

 Hemmu very nearly died, largely because she was already at the point of 3-4 death checks from enemy wounds, before the party were in a position to subdue her. We used the Fantastic Dungeon Grappling rules, rather than the standard DFRPG/GURPS rules for grappling. 

The FDG rules work very well at demonstrating how a person can be so thoroughly grappled as to be unable to escape, and how this can increase or decrease over several turns. I also like the "spending" of Control damage to boost another attack (Miao spent her control to boost her ST rolls to strangle Hemmu). 

 After she was out cold, Warian healed Hemmu for 30 HP, but she was still at something like -40 HP after that. That took all his power item in one go. Hemmu will have to sleep through the next fight.

 All in all, the session was dramatic, and showed why Berserk, as useful as it can be, is still a disadvantage and not an advantage. It keeps you fighting, but it prevents you from defending or retreating, and eventually you will die.