In which we playtest

 Welcome to 2024.

First session of the year went pretty well.  The relief column was played quickly with some nice flavor.  Our ranger who began as a bombastic embellisher has caught a lot of flak from our high elf fighter.  This column is partly mounted and our three heroes have been given horses for the task.  Only the ranger HAS horsemanship as a skill.  The wizard wisely led her animal or allowed it to be led but the steed of the haughty fighter kept wandering off the trail and onto the side of the road to graze, only to be retrieved by the ranger, who is now leading her like a kids pony ride.  Sweet.

Meanwhile back at the keep the newbies spent an hour trying to figure out how to get a lit torch through an arrow slit without being seen.  Was a GREAT example of the adage "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail."  They insisted on trying to physically relocating the torch then lighting it with magic (fire bolt.)  Eventually they realized they could LIGHT it first (with their tinder box) then transport it via Mage Hand.  Even then it didn't work as the bandits merely threw it back out, but it killed a fun hour.

So what got playtested?  I'm using the Open Multiple Files app again, which was helpful.  My magic and encumbrance sheet came in handy.  And I'm still learning the in's and out's of my own combat sheet and improving it's use.  Unbeknownst to the party I've been using Tracy & Curtis Hickman's combat damage table from XDM.  Mooks were going down with relative ease until the player rolled max damage but the table only gave them 50%.  They were shocked and panicked and they realized they were facing "Mongo" and not EVERY bandit was a pushover.  Nice moment.  The Players/DMs Handbooks I assembled worked as designed as well.

Which bring us to Nimble.  LOTS of good ideas but many aren't worth the walk: the solutions they offer to several problems are no more elegant than the problem they solve AND they're a step to far in some instances.  Attacking is FAR too simplified. Exhaustion is what many tables are already using.  Dying rules are too forgiving.  Our resting rules are better but they do have some interesting mechanics to use on the backside.  Mana is nice but our current spell slot system is "better."  And by better I mean my players like it, have bought into it and I don't wanna throw ANOTHER system at them.  

But their brew for Action Points is simple, elegant, makes sense, provides more player agency and got pretty quick buy in from my players.  Instead of move, action, bonus action and reaction you get three (or more) Action Points.  Almost everything costs 1 AP.  Exceptions are leveled spells that take 1 action to cast, which cost 2 AP, and special abilities or features that allow bonus actions (eg. step of the wind, action flurry) cost 0 and may only be done once per round.  Doing anything a second or third time adds stacking disadvantage (so you COULD attack three times but the second would be 2d20 and the third would be 3d20.)  The exception to THIS is ST spells.  The target would instead get advantage on the ST.  Done.  Almost.  High WIS gives a bonus to the #of AP's you have in the first round, improving not how EARLY you act but rather how OFTEN.  Might peel this one off.

And there's some "heroic" stuff as well.  PC may use 1 AP to block (reduce damage by your AC modifier.)  Opportunity attacks are now made at disadvantage and mooks don't have them.  Should make the battle field a little more fluid.  Also added a called shot critical.  On any attack you decide what a critical hit is (up to +10) (rolled with disadvantage) but a critical miss becomes just as big.  Essentially you can take a 50/50 shot with amplified failure.  This one needs more work.

 So how did all of this go in actual play?  Meh.  I had three casters fighting bowmen at range most of the time so a lot of this stuff didn't matter.  Until members of the party got close to 0 hp.  Blocking prevented a death.  There was a discussion while the party was pinned down about using the Called Shot Crit and the more I've thought about it the more I don't like it.  But here's a fix.  You can still do it BUT it's limited to 1 point (5%) per level AND there's a critical miss with multiple effects (ie roll twice on the critical hit table and double the results .... or triple .... etc.) 

A good session but further testing needed for the AP change.  AND the Called Shot Critical. 

<edit 1/12 to add> also got a chance to use "our new" fumble table.  Druid defending a section of keep wall.  Lizardfolk breeched the wall and melee ensued.  Druid Nat1's her first attack.  Rolled a 6 for a CHA ST - her penultimate state.  Failed ... and the free attack misses.  Was quite dramatic.  Player actually insisted on acting out her botched feint.  And the party agreed this (so far) was a GREAT mechanic!