TTJP Season 1 Session 11 The Tiger Team Lumberjacks!

After completing the choosing or initiation test  our group is moved to new barracks and given a days rest before their next assignment.

GM Link Session 11

Casting: Tiger Team!

• Jian Wu (Two) (Christian) 8M, strong guy
• Jiao Ting (Eight) (Chris D) 8M
• Liang Jing Min (Five) (Randy) 8M, sorcerer
• Nongmin Chushi (Seven) (Rory) 8M, says he talks to spirits, inquisitive and charming more than creepy despite possibly being insane.
• Shang Yi (One) (Calvin) 8M, natural leader and archer.
• Zhiyu Zhige (Nine) (Laurie) 8F, sorcerer specializing in healing.
• He Bohi (Eleven) 8M, Twin, grew up near the docks.
• He Donghai (Twelve) 8M, grew up near the docks.
• He Qing (Four) 9M, bully of the group.
• Laoshu (Three aka Mouse) 9F, quiet and good with a knife.
• Meiyou Ren (Six) M Also good with a knife
• Rang Baozhai (Ten) 11F, our bookworm and nerd.

GURPS Lumberjacking!

So the first assignment under our new teacher is basically a team building exercise. Were given a cart and sent to the southern end of the valley to cut firewood. We have to bring back 3,000 pounds of firewood in 5 days. Naturally no one knows how to drive a cart, or even ride a horse. Chushi has Animal Handling (Goats) and that seems our best shot so he introduces himself to the horse, which kind of ignores him and figures "Didnt bite me! Good enough" and he drives the cart. Afew who have not taken the Hiking skill pile in and the rest walk. Chushi takes his time and gets used to the horse and it to him. The group requisitions with some basic gear, no food, a bow for the archer and a fishing pole for Chushi.

We find a good spot and most of the group decides to cut wood, but a few go off looking for food. Yi has the bow so goes hunting,while Ting and Zhige go out foraging.

Day 1 Woodcutting

• He Bohai (+30%) 112.32 lbs
• He Donghai (+25%) 108 lbs
• He Qing (+0%) 76.8 lbs.
• Meiyou Ren (+35%) 155.52 lbs.
• Jian Wu (+10%) 116.16 lbs.
• Liang Jing Min (+35%) 103.68
• Chushi (+30%) 99.84
• Rang Baozhai (Leadership) (+35%) 
• Sub-Total: 772.32 lbs Total: 1,042.64 lbs
• Sheng Yi (Hunting) Wasted 1st/400 lb. deer 2nd
• Jiao Ting (Foraging) +10 meals
• Zhiyu Zhige (Foraging) +8 meals

So 1/3 the wood we need on day 1 and 18 meals from our foragers plus the deer. However there was a complication. The 8 year old Sheng Yi was unable to bring the 400 pound deer back on his own and had to come back for help. When some people (5 of us) went to get it (notably those with Survival so we can butcher it properly) we found a bear had just come across it and was looking it over. Chushi wanted to back away and told the group to back away slowly. The bear however was pretty angry and reared up to challenge us. Sheng Yi promptly shot it with an arrow in the vitals so running away no longer an option.

Zhige tried to do something magical but nothing we could see happened, Meiyou charged with her axe and hit it, followed by Chushi getting in a lucky shot. Several of us gang up on the bear doing all out attacks to make up for our low skills (as in most using default axe) and though it takes a few swipes the shock penalties and some lucky rolls we manage to kill it without it actually hitting anyone. 

Chushi skins and dresses the bear (bad roll losing a lot of good ,meat and the deer (much better roll) getting 400 lbs. of bear and 280 lbs. of deer meat.

Day 2 

• He Bohai (+30%) 112.32 lbs
• He Donghai (+15%) 95.04 lbs
• He Qing (+15%) 88.32 lbs.
• Meiyou Ren (+50%) 172.8 lbs.
• Sheng Yi (+30%) 99.84 lbs.
• Zhiyu Zhige (+35%) 103.68 lbs.
• Jian Wu (+30%) 91.52 lbs
• Liang Jing Min (+10%) 84.48 lbs.
• Rang Baozhai (Leadership) (+25%) 
•  Sub-Total: 948 lbs. Total: 1,060 lbs.
• Chushi (Smoke Meat)
• Jiao Ting (Gather Water/Smoke Meat)
• Jian Wu (Made Smoker)
• Mouse (On Watch)

Day 3

• He Bohai (+0%) 86.4 lbs
• He Donghai (+15%) 99.36 lbs
• He Qing (+5%) 80.64 lbs.
• Meiyou Ren (+15%) 132.48 lbs.
• Sheng Yi (+25%) 96 lbs.
• Zhiyu Zhige (+35%) 103.68 lbs.
• Jian Wu (+45%) 153.12 lbs
• Liang Jing Min (+30%) 99.84 lbs.
• Rang Baozhai (Leadership) (+25%)
•  Sub-Total: 851.52 Total: 1064.4

4th Day

• He Bohai (+35%) 116.64 lbs
• He Donghai (+10%) 95.04 lbs
• He Qing (+15%) 88.32 lbs.
• Meiyou Ren (+50%) 172.8 lbs.
• Sheng Yi (+25%) 96 lbs.
• Zhiyu Zhige (+20%) 92.16 lbs.
• Jian Wu (+40%) 107.52 lbs
• Liang Jing Min (+30%) 99.84 lbs.
• Sub-Total: 868.32
• Total: 1128.82 Rang Baozhai (Leadership) (+30%)

At this point we reached our goal and will spend a day exploring or relaxing before heading back. Our cart will be full of excess meat thats been smoked for 3 days so should last and well have stories to tell about how we took down a bear.

Aftermath

So the numbers above are probably not interesting but I decided to include them anyway. It shows just how good GURPS is about handling all kinds of things if you want it to..

The GM could easily have set an arbitrary amount and had us make a die roll to see if we made it or not, instead he pulled out some rules,mostly from GURPS Low Tech and used the figure ST *0.8 for amount of wood per hour, we opted to work 12 hours most of us, our lazy bully only did 8 hours a day. Also we got a bonus from Extra Effort and Leadership to increase efficiency. The rules for how much meat and how long it took to cut it up and smoke it were also from the Low Tech series of books.

Also were kids but were extraordinary kids who will hopefully one day be notable adults.  So we have a lot of high wills, many adding Single-Minded, Less Sleep, and Reduced Consumption.

We had fun socializing and organizing ourselves, then killing the bear. A few got to show off some of our skills and abilities. These first several sessions were just kids in a secret martial arts school so its more about getting to know each other and character growth than exotic adventures.