Sean's Campaign - Session #1
Part 1 of 3
Part 2 of 3
Part 3 of 3
Remember to do a 'right click' and "Save as"
Well this session proved that I had forgotten to learn from some of my previous mistakes.
Mistake number one – I try to do too much sometimes. In previous games I would go overboard with the number of things that I had to do in the foreground and background. The result was a mess. For this session this was limited to the first encounter. I had too many different monsters and too many PCs of players’ who weren’t there, and I was trying to control them all.
I was able to recover and get back on my feet, but as you’ll hear if you listen to the podcast, the first encounter did not go as smoothly and perfectly as I had hoped.
I did not give the players the D&D crack I was hoping for – yet.
Mistake number two – I had an encounter where the PCs were not the stars. The fight with the ankhegs going over and under the city walls was meant to give the group a chance to aid the city guard in an effective manner. It didn’t turn out so well.
Although I take the blame for this, it is something that had to be done. In order to properly challenge a newly formed group, you need a good baseline understanding of the group’s abilities and the group needs to know how to work together. So the result this time was the city guard helping the party more than the other way around. So it did show the party that the city guards are not incompetent level 1 warriors.
Mistake number three – I was not as prepared as I had thought I was. I think I covered it well enough, but constantly having to refer to the monster manuals kind of killed some of the flow. For some of the creatures I just started winging it, but only for the ones I had a good memory of.
But it was bad that I did it because I know I’ve complained in the past about others doing it.
So I’m going with the solution I’ve seen work before, write it on the note cards. Before I’ve done the note cards as just an initiative tracking aid with hit points recorded on them. Now I’ll be putting the encounter stats on them. This is unfortunately a lot of time to invest, so I’ll be looking for an alternative.
There were several good things to the game as well.
The players did not know one another’s PCs at the start, and they still don’t on a role-playing level. I will have to push them to role-play what their characters are like, but so far I like what I’m seeing.
I think I did a good job of getting the apocalyptic feel of the first night across to everyone. Now the players might be looking at their character backgrounds in a new light.
And I think I did well at making the players think “What the hell is going on?”
Here’s a quick synopsis of the game:
A large group of people were having a good time at the Roaring Bull Inn when suddenly all Baator broke loose. Dinnerware and chairs started attacking people. Then a fire mephit popped out of the fire place and a steam mephit popped out of tub of cleaning water behind the bar.
Most of the crowd fled in a panic outside of the door, while one particular woman seemed to know exactly what was going to happen next.
While the PCs were doing what they could to take out the mephits and animated tableware, the crowd was confronted with a group of skeletons. So the crowd fled back into the inn, while several of them were being cut down by the skeletons.
Shortly afterwards several zombies joined in on the fun.
Eventually the party and Bull were able to put down everything, but just barely. Bull and Brian’s PC dropped to the negatives.
When they went outside to check on anything else, they saw evidence that this was happening throughout the rest of the city.
They moved to help the nearby wall and gate that was being attacked by waves of insectoid creatures (ankhegs).
Eventually the cavalry came in the shape of the royal guards. They had taken care of the attacks going on inside the castle of Endrin and now were coming to purge the rest of the city.
By 3am the fighting was almost done, but then the storms came. They storms put out most of the fires spreading through the city, but it also brought at least one tornado with it.
When morning broke (not that anyone had slept) the city was in bad shape. Over 95% of the fleet of ships had sunk, several buildings were burned out shells, and a sizeable chunk of the wall had been destroyed.
Then came the refugees from the neighboring farmlands and villages. Stories came in from all over about the same things happening to everyone else. The only real difference was that the city had a powerful and competent guard while most villages had just one or two protectors.
And then the aftereffects hit. The loss of many people from the attacks, the influx of the refugees, and the greed of man caused riots to break out for food and other necessities. This ended when the city guard was called back and martial law was put in effect.
The guard had been going out and aiding the refugees coming into the city, but too many guards were getting picked off, and the guards left for home defense weren’t enough in number to deal with a riotous populace. So the guards were called back and weren’t sent out again.
But the king issued a proclamation that for every refugee that a group of independent people brought back, they would be paid 10gp and they would be paid 50gp for the head of every “fantastical creature”.
(This world has your standard orcs, goblins, gnolls, and simple undead but creatures like dragons, beholders, and krakens are unheard of except as millennia old myths.)
At the urging of Bull McAllister, the party decided that they might be able to make good money going out and collecting refugees and heads.
They made two such forays. The first foray found them several refugees and a few heads. But the second only gave them disappointment as all refugees already had someone escorting them back to the castle; one group of refugees was even being led by gnolls who were also seeking a truce with Endrin.
But their second foray was cut short by a nasty flying lizard that permanently drained the constitution of a couple of party members.
When they got back, they got patched up and Bull asked a favor of them. His ex-wife and daughter are out there somewhere and he was extremely worried about them. He was willing to pay the party nearly all of his remaining funds, and a small magical trinket (Necklace of Fireballs) to bring them back to him (mostly his daughter though).
The party refused his money, but took the necklace and then set off the next morning.
And that’s where we stopped.
Part 2 of 3
Part 3 of 3
Remember to do a 'right click' and "Save as"
Well this session proved that I had forgotten to learn from some of my previous mistakes.
Mistake number one – I try to do too much sometimes. In previous games I would go overboard with the number of things that I had to do in the foreground and background. The result was a mess. For this session this was limited to the first encounter. I had too many different monsters and too many PCs of players’ who weren’t there, and I was trying to control them all.
I was able to recover and get back on my feet, but as you’ll hear if you listen to the podcast, the first encounter did not go as smoothly and perfectly as I had hoped.
I did not give the players the D&D crack I was hoping for – yet.
Mistake number two – I had an encounter where the PCs were not the stars. The fight with the ankhegs going over and under the city walls was meant to give the group a chance to aid the city guard in an effective manner. It didn’t turn out so well.
Although I take the blame for this, it is something that had to be done. In order to properly challenge a newly formed group, you need a good baseline understanding of the group’s abilities and the group needs to know how to work together. So the result this time was the city guard helping the party more than the other way around. So it did show the party that the city guards are not incompetent level 1 warriors.
Mistake number three – I was not as prepared as I had thought I was. I think I covered it well enough, but constantly having to refer to the monster manuals kind of killed some of the flow. For some of the creatures I just started winging it, but only for the ones I had a good memory of.
But it was bad that I did it because I know I’ve complained in the past about others doing it.
So I’m going with the solution I’ve seen work before, write it on the note cards. Before I’ve done the note cards as just an initiative tracking aid with hit points recorded on them. Now I’ll be putting the encounter stats on them. This is unfortunately a lot of time to invest, so I’ll be looking for an alternative.
There were several good things to the game as well.
The players did not know one another’s PCs at the start, and they still don’t on a role-playing level. I will have to push them to role-play what their characters are like, but so far I like what I’m seeing.
I think I did a good job of getting the apocalyptic feel of the first night across to everyone. Now the players might be looking at their character backgrounds in a new light.
And I think I did well at making the players think “What the hell is going on?”
Here’s a quick synopsis of the game:
A large group of people were having a good time at the Roaring Bull Inn when suddenly all Baator broke loose. Dinnerware and chairs started attacking people. Then a fire mephit popped out of the fire place and a steam mephit popped out of tub of cleaning water behind the bar.
Most of the crowd fled in a panic outside of the door, while one particular woman seemed to know exactly what was going to happen next.
While the PCs were doing what they could to take out the mephits and animated tableware, the crowd was confronted with a group of skeletons. So the crowd fled back into the inn, while several of them were being cut down by the skeletons.
Shortly afterwards several zombies joined in on the fun.
Eventually the party and Bull were able to put down everything, but just barely. Bull and Brian’s PC dropped to the negatives.
When they went outside to check on anything else, they saw evidence that this was happening throughout the rest of the city.
They moved to help the nearby wall and gate that was being attacked by waves of insectoid creatures (ankhegs).
Eventually the cavalry came in the shape of the royal guards. They had taken care of the attacks going on inside the castle of Endrin and now were coming to purge the rest of the city.
By 3am the fighting was almost done, but then the storms came. They storms put out most of the fires spreading through the city, but it also brought at least one tornado with it.
When morning broke (not that anyone had slept) the city was in bad shape. Over 95% of the fleet of ships had sunk, several buildings were burned out shells, and a sizeable chunk of the wall had been destroyed.
Then came the refugees from the neighboring farmlands and villages. Stories came in from all over about the same things happening to everyone else. The only real difference was that the city had a powerful and competent guard while most villages had just one or two protectors.
And then the aftereffects hit. The loss of many people from the attacks, the influx of the refugees, and the greed of man caused riots to break out for food and other necessities. This ended when the city guard was called back and martial law was put in effect.
The guard had been going out and aiding the refugees coming into the city, but too many guards were getting picked off, and the guards left for home defense weren’t enough in number to deal with a riotous populace. So the guards were called back and weren’t sent out again.
But the king issued a proclamation that for every refugee that a group of independent people brought back, they would be paid 10gp and they would be paid 50gp for the head of every “fantastical creature”.
(This world has your standard orcs, goblins, gnolls, and simple undead but creatures like dragons, beholders, and krakens are unheard of except as millennia old myths.)
At the urging of Bull McAllister, the party decided that they might be able to make good money going out and collecting refugees and heads.
They made two such forays. The first foray found them several refugees and a few heads. But the second only gave them disappointment as all refugees already had someone escorting them back to the castle; one group of refugees was even being led by gnolls who were also seeking a truce with Endrin.
But their second foray was cut short by a nasty flying lizard that permanently drained the constitution of a couple of party members.
When they got back, they got patched up and Bull asked a favor of them. His ex-wife and daughter are out there somewhere and he was extremely worried about them. He was willing to pay the party nearly all of his remaining funds, and a small magical trinket (Necklace of Fireballs) to bring them back to him (mostly his daughter though).
The party refused his money, but took the necklace and then set off the next morning.
And that’s where we stopped.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 8:59 PM
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