The pact was that I will run a TFT open table megadungeon at the school club for 6 weekly sessions. Today was session one and… we played The Fantasy Trip but not in a dungeon. This is fine because the heart of this is keeping an experimental mindset.

Remember the Hypothesis: the School RP Club needs an Open Table as per The Alexandrian’s manifesto. But the megadungeon is not the only way to run an Open Table and, to begin, I decided to introduce the game through Melee.

Thus, with three players I decided to get them to quickly create themselves a Hero (think: fighter) and then challenge a giant (who we affectionately named “Og”) in the arena. They had a great time, I had a great time, and Og had a less than optimal time.

Og died.

But Og also got to yell, “Og smash!” lots and swing his big ol’ spiked club at the three Heroes. The players learned how to fight in The Fantasy Trip but we also discovered teamwork and how best to fight a big ol’ Giant.

To prepare, I’d got the swanky full-colour Melee arena map printed up onto a poster. I set Og at one end and the three Heroes are the other. One player choose an archer with a Horse Bow, another chose a Light Crossbow and Shortsword, third a pair of Axes.

Lessons were learned about armour and shields slowing them down plus reducing DX. But they also learned to outflank poor ol’ Og and cut him down from behind. Two of the Heroes engaged him while a third sniped with the bow.

Next week? Well, they’d like to try out the Wizard stuff.

Altered pact: Run a TFT open table at the school club for 6 weekly sessions.

Game on!