The party's exploration of caves under the city's main cathedral continues. Oma's player was out of town, but the sometime-player of Toss had work off, so joined for the night.
Anonimo - Rogue
Aphrodisia - Cleric
G - Cleric
Toss - Fighter
and various hirelings
I cut off last write-up a little too soon. The party had actually explored a passage to the left that ended in a sturdy oak door with a steel lock. Anonimo tried to pick it but failed so they proceeded to break it off. One of them step on a pressure plate and darts started pouring from the walls-- not shooting, apparently that mechanism was broken-- but the pile around their legs was enough to knock out Aphrodisia, her dog and hireling Arpe.
While they were deciding what to do, Anonimo scouted past the now opened door to find the natural cavern passage ending in a downward sloping passage only high enough to belly-crawl down. He went far enough to see there was a room of some sort full of jumbled idols.
The party decided to go back up to the cathedral to rest. After everyone woke back up and refreshed, they headed back to the small room with the idols. They spent a lot of time rummaging through these. Anonimo especially looking for gems and valuable bits. I tried to give the impression that these were lots of different gods formerly worshipped in the city that have been pitched here.
As they were messing about the room they heard movement and a weird barking below them. Aphrodisia started to talk to it. The thing seemed to call itself a dark swimmer and it got excited with its simple language, when she mentioned humans, saying "feed!, feed!"
The party decided to go back up to talk to the two priests. The learned one recited a few lays about dark swimmers and humans turning into them. Then they went on an extended shopping and dragons spree, I think to buy materials to try and trap what they imagined was down there.
Then back below the cathedral. They decided, before committing to going deeper, that they wanted to explore the other direction more. So they proceeded to the right, found a filthy hair sack, and a room of quivering pigeons with little tentacles writhing from their breasts. They also heard a huffing/ roaring sound and it was now G's turn to try and talk to whatever was ahead in the darkness.
It seemed territorial, and angry at another of its kind. It eventually came into the light and they saw something like a muddy hippo body but a bear-like head with sharp teeth. It didn't attack them. So they decided to explore back the other way a bit.
Toss stripped of armor and explored forward a bit in the cold water. Finally, turning back when the water didn't open up before she started running out of breath. So then it was back to the idol room and down to where the dark swimmer had been.
Under the pile of idols they found a hole. They descended down into the darkness to find hallways covered in a pitch black substance and roughly shaped, almost as if they were burrowed out.
This hallway had a few side passages that led to locked doors. Anonimo got a chance to pick them. In the first two rooms were weird sensory experiences: shifting colors, smells. As they continued down the main hall, little hoof taps greeted them. Then this thing showed up out of the darkness.
It begged and pleaded with them to let it touch their forehead. G was ready with a club, wanting to brain it, but Aphrodisia allowed it to and her greatest regret melted out of her with a feeling of warmth. Then it clattered of in the darkness and we ended for the night.
Thoughts and notes
I gave all my players an index card at the beginning of the session that had the instruction to "Write your character's biggest regret" and when the thing touched Aphrodisia I asked for her card and dramatically tore it in half.
This was the first time I as a DM have ever played animals talking to players. It was fun. I made it less funny language and more the players understanding what the creatures were communicating in broad terms like "be alert, everyone hunting now", etc.
The players seemed to think the one creature they were talking to was referring to the barking "Dark swimmer", which was just a weird seal, but it wasn't. There is another even larger bear-hippo on the other side of the water cave. They got a lucky reaction roll on the first one, they might be in trouble if the keep messing with these big creatures.
The whole thing is a chaos area leaking out underneath the cathedral. I set up a Jenga tower and asked the clerics to pull when they cast a spell. If the tower fall bad chaos things will happen. I have another mechanic in mind for the next session (hopefully tonight). I have some colored stones of about the same shape. I'm going to let the players examine they as long as they wish, then put them in a sack and ask them to pull a stone they name before hand, by touch alone. I think it should be fun, and probably hard. I am trying to use it to convey the idea that Chaos is so strong hear that they are having a hard time communicating with their deities. So each time they try to cast a spell, they will have to successfully draw a stone for it to succeed.
The lockpicking minigame seems to be working well, when I introduced it a while back, Anonimo the rogue's player said something like "Finally something to do" Which made me fell a bit bad, but, I'm working on it. I need to give the fighters more to do. I'm thinking a magical chaos weapon down this hole might do just the trick.
Showing posts with label Post Mortem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Post Mortem. Show all posts
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Saturday, May 7, 2016
After the Regatta
It's been a year since I DMed last. We previously left our party after one of them had one the Regatta Gloriosa. Now the adventures continue:
Anonimo - Rogue
Aphrodisia - Cleric
G - Cleric
Oma - Fighter
and various hirelings
We rolled on the Fad of the Day chart and negotiated the answer to mean bling was in season. Which is fitting because there would be a procession from the docks to the central cathedral. That is because in winning the regatta G secured the right to change the city's religion for a year.
So, Shopping & Dragons happened for a while as players tried to bling themselves up. I am horrible at estimating prices and may need to just buckle down and develop my own simplified price lists for the city as well as maybe develop a mini-game to make it more engaging for everyone.
After the blinged-out crew finished the procession there was a banquet attended by all the most important families in Ulminster. After many courses of some of the city's famous delicacies there was a toast. Suddenly one old priest lurch back and melted into a tarry substance. Chaos erupted, people running and screaming it was an ill omen.
The party investigated the body but there wasn't much left except his staff that had scratch marks around the tip. G asked the Captain, his diety, for the power to speak with the dead and was granted it. After asking a few questions they determined the old dude had no clue what happened to him, but he mentioned a strange word "sevreson." Asking around, the party ended up talking to Learned Henry who informed them that sevreson was a rare, rural digestif and proceeded to sing a song about it. Talking to another old priest Bonny Burleson who was the deceased roommate, they found he often snuck off to the cellar, for what they assumed was a snort of the stuff. On searching the cellar, though, they found nothing resembling the rare liqueur. G asked the Captain for gudiance and they were led to a rack in one corner of the cellar that could be swung out.
On the other side of this secret door they found a natural cavern with a keg. on top of the keg was some tarry substance that looked like a rat had died and its foul fluids were dripping down near the tap. They just began searching the caverns when we stopped for the night.
Oh, I forgot, Aphrodisia can see the future and had a dream of a scantily clad person clambering up a wall in the cathedral to steal a jeweled cross. and several times during the evening (procession, banquet) strange masked figure appeared.
Reflection
So, about the last two notes-- I'm trying to plant seed for a thriving Snake cult they can chose to investigate (the scantily clad thief) and also start escalating some craziness in the world related to people donning masks that will occur whether they get involved or not.
Backing up, while super simple, this is the first time I've ever ventured into something mystery-like. It seemed to go ok. I didn't even think about the cleric's ability to speak with the dead, though. So, next time I try something like this I should have weird clues for the dead person to give.
Also, I introduced Henry and Burleson specifically so that the players would have different avenues to find out about things. They are two of my three ideas for distinct knowledge npcs (the Veteran and the Storyteller). It was a bit of a rusty start, but hopefully it will become more fruitful.
In addition to thinking about pricelists I mentioned above I want to create my own version of Chris Hogan's Fad of the Day chart. I think the idea is brilliant, but I think I might be using it slightly differently than he intended, I mostly want something fresh and potentially funny to differentiate social interaction each session. So, I need less support from the chart for repercussion for not following the fad and more help with what the fad actually is. I'll share it if I make it. Hope you are all have fun gaming with friends. See you next post.
Anonimo - Rogue
Aphrodisia - Cleric
G - Cleric
Oma - Fighter
and various hirelings
We rolled on the Fad of the Day chart and negotiated the answer to mean bling was in season. Which is fitting because there would be a procession from the docks to the central cathedral. That is because in winning the regatta G secured the right to change the city's religion for a year.
So, Shopping & Dragons happened for a while as players tried to bling themselves up. I am horrible at estimating prices and may need to just buckle down and develop my own simplified price lists for the city as well as maybe develop a mini-game to make it more engaging for everyone.
After the blinged-out crew finished the procession there was a banquet attended by all the most important families in Ulminster. After many courses of some of the city's famous delicacies there was a toast. Suddenly one old priest lurch back and melted into a tarry substance. Chaos erupted, people running and screaming it was an ill omen.
The party investigated the body but there wasn't much left except his staff that had scratch marks around the tip. G asked the Captain, his diety, for the power to speak with the dead and was granted it. After asking a few questions they determined the old dude had no clue what happened to him, but he mentioned a strange word "sevreson." Asking around, the party ended up talking to Learned Henry who informed them that sevreson was a rare, rural digestif and proceeded to sing a song about it. Talking to another old priest Bonny Burleson who was the deceased roommate, they found he often snuck off to the cellar, for what they assumed was a snort of the stuff. On searching the cellar, though, they found nothing resembling the rare liqueur. G asked the Captain for gudiance and they were led to a rack in one corner of the cellar that could be swung out.
On the other side of this secret door they found a natural cavern with a keg. on top of the keg was some tarry substance that looked like a rat had died and its foul fluids were dripping down near the tap. They just began searching the caverns when we stopped for the night.
Oh, I forgot, Aphrodisia can see the future and had a dream of a scantily clad person clambering up a wall in the cathedral to steal a jeweled cross. and several times during the evening (procession, banquet) strange masked figure appeared.
Reflection
So, about the last two notes-- I'm trying to plant seed for a thriving Snake cult they can chose to investigate (the scantily clad thief) and also start escalating some craziness in the world related to people donning masks that will occur whether they get involved or not.
Backing up, while super simple, this is the first time I've ever ventured into something mystery-like. It seemed to go ok. I didn't even think about the cleric's ability to speak with the dead, though. So, next time I try something like this I should have weird clues for the dead person to give.
Also, I introduced Henry and Burleson specifically so that the players would have different avenues to find out about things. They are two of my three ideas for distinct knowledge npcs (the Veteran and the Storyteller). It was a bit of a rusty start, but hopefully it will become more fruitful.
In addition to thinking about pricelists I mentioned above I want to create my own version of Chris Hogan's Fad of the Day chart. I think the idea is brilliant, but I think I might be using it slightly differently than he intended, I mostly want something fresh and potentially funny to differentiate social interaction each session. So, I need less support from the chart for repercussion for not following the fad and more help with what the fad actually is. I'll share it if I make it. Hope you are all have fun gaming with friends. See you next post.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Into Red Crystal Cave
I'm not dead yet, just lazy, procrastinating, and currently obsessed with finding a donkey in Minecraft. :) But I had two fun sessions of D&D at a cabin in the mountains last weekend that I wanted to write about. If you're normally bored by after-play reports, skip to the bottom where I reflect on DMing and design.
Gino - Divine Petitioner (worships Captain Morgan)
Adrian - non-combatant hireling
Aphrodesia - DP (worships Victoria and her secrets)
Mine - hireling
Anonimo - Rogue (my first thief like character I've allowed)
RP - hireling
Oma - F
The party was camped outside the Red Crystal Cave after last session's brief exploratory visit. They decided to go back in. There were sticky black guano droppings everywhere. They found a mummified goat carcass that appeared to have been drained of all moisture and had puncture marks. But big puncture marks and all over the body.
They came to a room with natural flowstone that was tall enough to disappear into darkness. Anonimo used is skill at climbing to explore and eventually secure a spike and rope. The party ascended to find a shallow, concave area that used to have water and had flowstone falling off into darkness on the opposite side as well. Anonimo descended to explore, heard a coughing and saw a very thin women shuffling into the darkness.
He tried to find her but couldn't, though the cave appeared to be a dead end. He also found a cluster of rosy-pink crystals growing. After rejoining the party they all headed down a smaller passage.
They found a room with puddles of thick, red liquid. The party quickly started bottling it up, emptying a wineskin of water to help. They continue exploring the only other exit. The passage becomes narrower, causing them to move through it sideways with no shield coverage.
Gino, in the lead, feels something under his feet. The guano is up to their calves now. He pulls it up to find it a mummified human hand. It has been drained of its liquid too. They press on. The passage opens up to a cave. The ceiling is covered with bat-like creatures. Gino gets the drop on them, throws a flash firework, and goes out swinging. Luckily, the firework blinded most of them, he quickly comes to his senses and backs back into the corridor. Adrian pitches several bottles of oil and it is lit. The critters are mostly toasted. A few blows and the final big ones are killed.
They find another cluster of crystals, a mother-of-pearl statuette of a limbless woman, and a earthenware religious yoke that Oma recognized to be her own family's. They left the cave and headed back to the nearby trading post. They discovered that the statuette might be of interest to the Sisters of Perpetual Abnegation (worship St Cecily) and sell the crystals for lots of gold (they are apparently useful in scribing magic scrolls). Gino decides to drink some of the red liquid he collected. It makes him feel more robust and yet weaker as well.
That night Anonimo had a terrible dream about a thin woman squatting over him, pulling pearls from his mouth while he was unable to move. In the morning he woke to feel literally weaker. The party decided to head back to the cave and kill the "witch" he'd seen.
Excursion 2
On there way back to the cave they got lost, traveling in a big circle and finding themselves back at the trading post. They spent the night and tried again the next day, carefully building piles of stones along the way as they went.
On reaching the cave, they made a beeline to where Anonimo saw the woman. The whole party descended exept for Adrian who was to guard the rope. They found nothing but a filthy nest of sorts with a small string of pearls. While searching some small creatures attacked Adrian out of the darkness. They looked like caterpillars with hard, crab legs. She scampered down the rope and the creatures didn't follow.
After climbing back up the flowstone, the party decided to explore the passages they hadn't gone down. They came to a room with more puddles of red liquid which they gathered. They eventually heard the sound of a baby crying. In the next cave they found an infant lying on the ground. Aphrodesia was quick to pick it up, though the party had reservations. Only feeding it some softened rations quieted the baby. There was another cluster of crystals in this cave.
Heading back to town, the baby began crying again. They noticed it had aged by two years. This happened several times on the walk back to the trading post, the baby getting bigger and heavier in Aphrodesia's arms.
When they had almost reached their destination a group of ragged and hungry men surrounded them in the darkness demanding food. Gino was angered and took a swing at the men, missing. The two women were more sympathetic throwing bags of food and gold. The men, satisfied disappeared into darkness.
Upon reaching the post, they sold the crystals and tried securing the now ~8 year old child, but he ran off naked into the night. The trader told them it might be a Bantling and best left alone. Somewhere along the line Gino's weakness subsided, but not his robustness. The other party members decided to drink of the red liquid gaining some robustness and weird symptoms.
Thoughts
First, you can see a bit of my process with my map. I just rolled dice and traced them to make a cavern-like location. Then numbers are elevations. It looks like they never visited one room but I think they did the very first foray, when I called it a night due to lateness and being unprepared (this cave was one of 4 locations I had half-ready). I'm really happy with the way the simple method gives a decent sense of verisimilitude. This method will be in my 1000 post booklet (though there really isn't much to it).
The bat things were a flock of stirge, ~12, which I was sure would kill half the party. I forgot Gino had the firework. I have a tradition of giving players stuff on their actual birthdays. And Gino's player wanted fireworks, so I let him chose from a list. That was a few months ago.
With the red liquid I was trying to train these newer players that there can be rewards to trying things, so I made drinking it give permanent, extra hit points. I also wanted them to be a little leery, so I had them have a random side effect for a day. It may have been too much of a freeby, now Gino has more hit points than he should. But I think it was worth it. He was ecstatic when he realized I was giving him hit points for drinking it. It was also fun to watch the rest of the players waiting to see if he had any bad effects before drinking it themselves. And me pausing just long enough before asking him to roll again.
The "one ration a day or bad effects" rule combined with the poor availability of rations at villages has made food seem real in this world, or at least a sense of hunger and famine. The players are concerned about it and trying to buy it everywhere. Of course that made me think the bantling was the perfect creepy creature to have them find. It ate a week's worth of rations and stressed out Aphrodesia's player :)
I'm still trying to figure out my economy/store stocks. The trading post felt too much like Walmart with infinite rations and plate mail available. I'll have to implement a system that limits goods like some of you suggested in comments. My players have tons of gold, now. I need to figure out some gold sinks. I mentioned giving villages heath points. I want to do that by next session and come up with some suggested improvements. I think labor would be an easy ongoing cost, maybe allow the players to fund local village watch/guards. Or tell them they can hire peasants to make roads/cut trails. After getting lost for the first time that might interest them.
I tried out a simple hunting/foraging system based on Talysman's and I think it worked well. Foraging gives rations/time based on how "Lush" a terrain. With the plains' low lushness, hunting small animals and foraging are pretty close to equivalent. I remember now, that before heading into the cave the first session the party spent a chunk of the day hunting and gathering. The women decide to forage. I told them they were finding dandelions, wild onion, and wild strawberries. The men hunted feral goats and a few of them got lucky but one of them didn't. So, it was a good indicator to them of how available food can be.
In terrains that are more lush, like jungles, they should be able to gather enough food for the day just walking along the road. Though I'm thinking foraging (and hunting) might need to be "unlocked" first by having a local show you the foodstuffs and game they usually go after.
When I was scrambling to make the sandbox ready two session ago I was thinking the whole point of a sandbox is for multiple choices to be laid out in front of the players. While that is true, I was silly to forget that the size and scope of sandboxes are usually gradually revealed. That, no sandbox is revealed completely at first. I'm speaking from video game experience here, but I think it would translate. So it's fine for them to putter about around these initial three villages before I expand the map and reveal more, and more brutal terrains to come.
Since we had two sessions and this was the 4th, we aren't playing this week. I'm curious where they will head next. I didn't ask them again. But it seems like "where do we go now?" is a natural start-of-session decision, not something after the release of tension of surviving a dungeon delve and tallying up your xp. That's it for now. Hope you have a great weekend.
Gino - Divine Petitioner (worships Captain Morgan)
Adrian - non-combatant hireling
Aphrodesia - DP (worships Victoria and her secrets)
Mine - hireling
Anonimo - Rogue (my first thief like character I've allowed)
RP - hireling
Oma - F
The party was camped outside the Red Crystal Cave after last session's brief exploratory visit. They decided to go back in. There were sticky black guano droppings everywhere. They found a mummified goat carcass that appeared to have been drained of all moisture and had puncture marks. But big puncture marks and all over the body.
They came to a room with natural flowstone that was tall enough to disappear into darkness. Anonimo used is skill at climbing to explore and eventually secure a spike and rope. The party ascended to find a shallow, concave area that used to have water and had flowstone falling off into darkness on the opposite side as well. Anonimo descended to explore, heard a coughing and saw a very thin women shuffling into the darkness.
He tried to find her but couldn't, though the cave appeared to be a dead end. He also found a cluster of rosy-pink crystals growing. After rejoining the party they all headed down a smaller passage.
They found a room with puddles of thick, red liquid. The party quickly started bottling it up, emptying a wineskin of water to help. They continue exploring the only other exit. The passage becomes narrower, causing them to move through it sideways with no shield coverage.
Gino, in the lead, feels something under his feet. The guano is up to their calves now. He pulls it up to find it a mummified human hand. It has been drained of its liquid too. They press on. The passage opens up to a cave. The ceiling is covered with bat-like creatures. Gino gets the drop on them, throws a flash firework, and goes out swinging. Luckily, the firework blinded most of them, he quickly comes to his senses and backs back into the corridor. Adrian pitches several bottles of oil and it is lit. The critters are mostly toasted. A few blows and the final big ones are killed.
They find another cluster of crystals, a mother-of-pearl statuette of a limbless woman, and a earthenware religious yoke that Oma recognized to be her own family's. They left the cave and headed back to the nearby trading post. They discovered that the statuette might be of interest to the Sisters of Perpetual Abnegation (worship St Cecily) and sell the crystals for lots of gold (they are apparently useful in scribing magic scrolls). Gino decides to drink some of the red liquid he collected. It makes him feel more robust and yet weaker as well.
That night Anonimo had a terrible dream about a thin woman squatting over him, pulling pearls from his mouth while he was unable to move. In the morning he woke to feel literally weaker. The party decided to head back to the cave and kill the "witch" he'd seen.
Excursion 2
On there way back to the cave they got lost, traveling in a big circle and finding themselves back at the trading post. They spent the night and tried again the next day, carefully building piles of stones along the way as they went.
On reaching the cave, they made a beeline to where Anonimo saw the woman. The whole party descended exept for Adrian who was to guard the rope. They found nothing but a filthy nest of sorts with a small string of pearls. While searching some small creatures attacked Adrian out of the darkness. They looked like caterpillars with hard, crab legs. She scampered down the rope and the creatures didn't follow.
After climbing back up the flowstone, the party decided to explore the passages they hadn't gone down. They came to a room with more puddles of red liquid which they gathered. They eventually heard the sound of a baby crying. In the next cave they found an infant lying on the ground. Aphrodesia was quick to pick it up, though the party had reservations. Only feeding it some softened rations quieted the baby. There was another cluster of crystals in this cave.
Heading back to town, the baby began crying again. They noticed it had aged by two years. This happened several times on the walk back to the trading post, the baby getting bigger and heavier in Aphrodesia's arms.
When they had almost reached their destination a group of ragged and hungry men surrounded them in the darkness demanding food. Gino was angered and took a swing at the men, missing. The two women were more sympathetic throwing bags of food and gold. The men, satisfied disappeared into darkness.
Upon reaching the post, they sold the crystals and tried securing the now ~8 year old child, but he ran off naked into the night. The trader told them it might be a Bantling and best left alone. Somewhere along the line Gino's weakness subsided, but not his robustness. The other party members decided to drink of the red liquid gaining some robustness and weird symptoms.
Thoughts
First, you can see a bit of my process with my map. I just rolled dice and traced them to make a cavern-like location. Then numbers are elevations. It looks like they never visited one room but I think they did the very first foray, when I called it a night due to lateness and being unprepared (this cave was one of 4 locations I had half-ready). I'm really happy with the way the simple method gives a decent sense of verisimilitude. This method will be in my 1000 post booklet (though there really isn't much to it).
The bat things were a flock of stirge, ~12, which I was sure would kill half the party. I forgot Gino had the firework. I have a tradition of giving players stuff on their actual birthdays. And Gino's player wanted fireworks, so I let him chose from a list. That was a few months ago.
With the red liquid I was trying to train these newer players that there can be rewards to trying things, so I made drinking it give permanent, extra hit points. I also wanted them to be a little leery, so I had them have a random side effect for a day. It may have been too much of a freeby, now Gino has more hit points than he should. But I think it was worth it. He was ecstatic when he realized I was giving him hit points for drinking it. It was also fun to watch the rest of the players waiting to see if he had any bad effects before drinking it themselves. And me pausing just long enough before asking him to roll again.
The "one ration a day or bad effects" rule combined with the poor availability of rations at villages has made food seem real in this world, or at least a sense of hunger and famine. The players are concerned about it and trying to buy it everywhere. Of course that made me think the bantling was the perfect creepy creature to have them find. It ate a week's worth of rations and stressed out Aphrodesia's player :)
I'm still trying to figure out my economy/store stocks. The trading post felt too much like Walmart with infinite rations and plate mail available. I'll have to implement a system that limits goods like some of you suggested in comments. My players have tons of gold, now. I need to figure out some gold sinks. I mentioned giving villages heath points. I want to do that by next session and come up with some suggested improvements. I think labor would be an easy ongoing cost, maybe allow the players to fund local village watch/guards. Or tell them they can hire peasants to make roads/cut trails. After getting lost for the first time that might interest them.
I tried out a simple hunting/foraging system based on Talysman's and I think it worked well. Foraging gives rations/time based on how "Lush" a terrain. With the plains' low lushness, hunting small animals and foraging are pretty close to equivalent. I remember now, that before heading into the cave the first session the party spent a chunk of the day hunting and gathering. The women decide to forage. I told them they were finding dandelions, wild onion, and wild strawberries. The men hunted feral goats and a few of them got lucky but one of them didn't. So, it was a good indicator to them of how available food can be.
In terrains that are more lush, like jungles, they should be able to gather enough food for the day just walking along the road. Though I'm thinking foraging (and hunting) might need to be "unlocked" first by having a local show you the foodstuffs and game they usually go after.
When I was scrambling to make the sandbox ready two session ago I was thinking the whole point of a sandbox is for multiple choices to be laid out in front of the players. While that is true, I was silly to forget that the size and scope of sandboxes are usually gradually revealed. That, no sandbox is revealed completely at first. I'm speaking from video game experience here, but I think it would translate. So it's fine for them to putter about around these initial three villages before I expand the map and reveal more, and more brutal terrains to come.
Since we had two sessions and this was the 4th, we aren't playing this week. I'm curious where they will head next. I didn't ask them again. But it seems like "where do we go now?" is a natural start-of-session decision, not something after the release of tension of surviving a dungeon delve and tallying up your xp. That's it for now. Hope you have a great weekend.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Into the Coastal Caves
Sourpuss - F
Fezik - F
Walter - F
Pearl - MU
Morgana the Magical Bitch (? I think) - MU
Gladius the Wiztard - MU
Six folks with incredibly low wisdom decided to explore the local spooky cave. Entering the cave it smelled of old urine and unwashed humans. Fezik poked around in some broken shelves and much chaos ensued as black centipedes raced out. They were finally dispatched, including a powerful atomic elbow drop on one by Gladius.
The party started to take the left passage until they realized the water on the floor was getting deeper. Heading right they encountered a passage so steep they had to use their hands to help them climb.
As they reached a less steep section carnivorous bats attacked. Some dithering was made about whether Morgana and Pearl should cast sleep or not. They decided to just duck and attack with staff respectively. Walter scored a mighty blow cutting one in half and sending the rest to the ground. For some reason the bats hated Fezik attacking him again and again, even after he splintered his shield they tore open his flesh. Morgana soon followed. Pearl decided to cast sleep.
Heading into an even smaller passage the party encounter a hole in the ground into a stale-aired space. Having heard rumors of noxious fumes they were fearful. Gladius shoved his bedroll into a hole before they found another and just moved on.
Several choices were made about which passages to take, usually the driest option was chosen. The party found themselves in a cave with what looked like bodies in fetal positions encrusted in limestone. They were fearful and left the bodies undisturbed.
On circling back into a room with a pool they were surprised by blind cave salamanders the size of small crocodiles. It just so happened that the two torch bearers, Gladius and Pearl, were pulled under water extinguishing the light sources.
A desperate battle ensued. Walter hurt the salamander holding Pearl enough that it fled. But the beast that held Gladius was tougher and more stubborn and even as Sourpuss was systematically opening its gut with her dagger, it held on. At last the survivors figured Gladius drowned and fled.
They encountered a dusty room with bison cave paintings. Pearl eventually swept the dust away on the floor finding two hands painted there. Placing her hands there she felt a surge of strength. Sourpuss and Walter tried it to no effect.
A few more twists and turns and the last of the party found a little isle in a grotto covered in silver coins, two ruined chests, a huge skull with scrimshawed teeth and a rowboat. Gathering all the coins they got in the luckily seaworthy boat and escaped out a passage to sea.
Some thoughts
____________________________________________________________________________
I had another session before this I didn't write up. I'll include some lessons I learned from that so I don't lose them.
A party going into a dungeon to "check it out," a party going into a dungeon to "earn x gold pieces," and a party going into a dungeon to "find the wondrous X," are all different kinds of adventure. The first is probably the best for brand new players because they can quit any time they feel satisfied. The last is probably the hardest because a new party will have to go on and on looking for something and feel like they failed if they don't ever find it.
If you give a power for a one-off, make sure it is powerful enough to work in that one-off scenario, i.e. a vow to protect against blades when there are no enemies with blades isn't going to shine that session, telekinesis of a few pounds might be quite useful over the course of a campaign, but for a one off make it 200 pounds.
I still don't understand rumors or what they are for. The party in this adventure were terrified of noxious fumes and the tide coming in, both of which were false rumors. As the DM lying is the easiest thing to do. So, did the relief that they weren't going to be killed by fumes merit the false rumor? I don't know.
Notice the passage choices are almost all to take the driest route.
One player got really frustrated during the salamander fight. I was trying to give the sense of the chaos of the bodies intertwining under water and counting off on my finger for them to choose actions, but that player got overwhelmed I think. I suppose I could have gone easier, suggested some courses of actions to him, but I don't think there were a lot of good choices at that point. He did save one of the drowners.
"Protection from Evil" is a dumb spell name. Several players now have thought it would, you know protect them. Finding out it just made it harder to get hit, and they wasted a spell slot on it led to unhappiness. Note: this was usually as a second spell for exceptionally smart wizards, I almost always suggest they take Sleep.
Asking players what their spells look like is always frutiful and hilarious.
Funny relationships between characters is also gold. I use a chart I edited down from JB's. Two of the characters were parent and child this time. The father leaving the son to drown. Good stuff.
I made this map years ago. As a DM that's run it, it sucks. I wanted clearer markings of elevation change and water depth. It was fun to make, but doesn't need all the dark ink either.
I tried to make it a sort of naturalistic place-- a living cave system with sections dry and "dead." But I need to be careful, centipedes and bats don't seem that dangerous to players in the way a vomiter or man of wounds would be.
These folks want to play again. I had a great time eating pizza, drinking adult beverages, and joking around with smart people. This is a great game we have.
Fezik - F
Walter - F
Pearl - MU
Morgana the Magical Bitch (? I think) - MU
Gladius the Wiztard - MU
The party started to take the left passage until they realized the water on the floor was getting deeper. Heading right they encountered a passage so steep they had to use their hands to help them climb.
As they reached a less steep section carnivorous bats attacked. Some dithering was made about whether Morgana and Pearl should cast sleep or not. They decided to just duck and attack with staff respectively. Walter scored a mighty blow cutting one in half and sending the rest to the ground. For some reason the bats hated Fezik attacking him again and again, even after he splintered his shield they tore open his flesh. Morgana soon followed. Pearl decided to cast sleep.
Heading into an even smaller passage the party encounter a hole in the ground into a stale-aired space. Having heard rumors of noxious fumes they were fearful. Gladius shoved his bedroll into a hole before they found another and just moved on.
Several choices were made about which passages to take, usually the driest option was chosen. The party found themselves in a cave with what looked like bodies in fetal positions encrusted in limestone. They were fearful and left the bodies undisturbed.
On circling back into a room with a pool they were surprised by blind cave salamanders the size of small crocodiles. It just so happened that the two torch bearers, Gladius and Pearl, were pulled under water extinguishing the light sources.
A desperate battle ensued. Walter hurt the salamander holding Pearl enough that it fled. But the beast that held Gladius was tougher and more stubborn and even as Sourpuss was systematically opening its gut with her dagger, it held on. At last the survivors figured Gladius drowned and fled.
They encountered a dusty room with bison cave paintings. Pearl eventually swept the dust away on the floor finding two hands painted there. Placing her hands there she felt a surge of strength. Sourpuss and Walter tried it to no effect.
A few more twists and turns and the last of the party found a little isle in a grotto covered in silver coins, two ruined chests, a huge skull with scrimshawed teeth and a rowboat. Gathering all the coins they got in the luckily seaworthy boat and escaped out a passage to sea.
| Easy way to store and offer rumors to players. |
____________________________________________________________________________
I had another session before this I didn't write up. I'll include some lessons I learned from that so I don't lose them.
A party going into a dungeon to "check it out," a party going into a dungeon to "earn x gold pieces," and a party going into a dungeon to "find the wondrous X," are all different kinds of adventure. The first is probably the best for brand new players because they can quit any time they feel satisfied. The last is probably the hardest because a new party will have to go on and on looking for something and feel like they failed if they don't ever find it.
If you give a power for a one-off, make sure it is powerful enough to work in that one-off scenario, i.e. a vow to protect against blades when there are no enemies with blades isn't going to shine that session, telekinesis of a few pounds might be quite useful over the course of a campaign, but for a one off make it 200 pounds.
I still don't understand rumors or what they are for. The party in this adventure were terrified of noxious fumes and the tide coming in, both of which were false rumors. As the DM lying is the easiest thing to do. So, did the relief that they weren't going to be killed by fumes merit the false rumor? I don't know.
Notice the passage choices are almost all to take the driest route.
One player got really frustrated during the salamander fight. I was trying to give the sense of the chaos of the bodies intertwining under water and counting off on my finger for them to choose actions, but that player got overwhelmed I think. I suppose I could have gone easier, suggested some courses of actions to him, but I don't think there were a lot of good choices at that point. He did save one of the drowners.
"Protection from Evil" is a dumb spell name. Several players now have thought it would, you know protect them. Finding out it just made it harder to get hit, and they wasted a spell slot on it led to unhappiness. Note: this was usually as a second spell for exceptionally smart wizards, I almost always suggest they take Sleep.
Asking players what their spells look like is always frutiful and hilarious.
Funny relationships between characters is also gold. I use a chart I edited down from JB's. Two of the characters were parent and child this time. The father leaving the son to drown. Good stuff.
I made this map years ago. As a DM that's run it, it sucks. I wanted clearer markings of elevation change and water depth. It was fun to make, but doesn't need all the dark ink either.
I tried to make it a sort of naturalistic place-- a living cave system with sections dry and "dead." But I need to be careful, centipedes and bats don't seem that dangerous to players in the way a vomiter or man of wounds would be.
These folks want to play again. I had a great time eating pizza, drinking adult beverages, and joking around with smart people. This is a great game we have.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Into the Dwarven Outpost II
I was lucky enough to be invited camping with my friend's friends. This is the third time, but I'm still getting to know them. While they read and there is some college experience among them I would consider them more doers-- drinking, physical fun, pop-culture consuming-- than folks that enjoy sitting around navel gazing like myself.
I would never imagine them to have played D&D (and turned out to be right. They don't really even have any video games experience). In fact, like most of the population, I would expect them to mock D&D players (which they did when it was brought up). I was surprised when they knew what LARPing was, but then was less so when it was followed by "lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt." So, LARPing was the easiest niche of our hobby to know because it is easiest to mock as a YouTube video.
Because of all this I would never have suggested playing D&D while camping with them. They had plenty to do, with hiking, fishing, swimming, and eating good food. But my friend Jeff who invited me shook things up a bit.
He's played with me before and knew I had a dungeon with me (the one he died in on the trip up). So he suggested to them that we play sometime during the trip. I was also inspired by the way he printed up lyrics for sing-a-longs around the camp fire even though he's still learning to play guitar. If he was willing to get up there and perform in front of everyone why shouldn't I?
Several days of camping passed. Fishing and hiking was done. We cooled of in a small pool with a waterfall, drank, and sang songs. On the last night we ended up in a situation where there was nothing to do but wait for a tri-tip to cook and the idea came up that we play. So we did. And it was a great success I think. Here's what happened:
When I asked who wanted to play I was very surprised when Jeff's 66 year-old dad said yes. He's a stoic, no-nonsense kind of guy. I think he said yes because when I asked his girlfriend right before him she had enthusiastically said yes.
Later, when I was trying to establish classes he said he wanted to be King Kong. I hesitated a bit and said "King Kong won't fit where you're going, do you want to be a gorilla?" He said "yes." "Do you speak? Are you a talking gorilla?" He said "yes." She wanted to be The Green Mosquito. I wasn't sure if she meant like a fairy or a tiny super hero but I asked her if she could fly. "Yes." Ok.
There were seven players in all. My buddy Jeff, his father and father's girlfriend, another male-female couple and two ten year olds, one female one male.
I knew that, because six were brand new to the whole concept of D&D, and we were basically playing in the dirt that I would have to keep things simple and get them moving as quickly as possible. I hadn't brought any character sheets, but was able to bum one of the song lyric pages. I folded that into 9 parts and tore it apart. I wrote a space for "Name," the six stat abbreviations, "life," and "armor" on these before handing them out. I didn't have enough writing utensils (In the future I should get a handful of those Ikea sized pencils).
I only had three six-siders and the cardboard bottom from a case of water bottles to roll in, so bless Jeff Rients for giving me the tool of party-style stat-rolling. Although, since I didn't have a lot of dice (or even a table) I just let them put the stat wherever they wanted rather than randomizing as he suggested. The first few rolls were good, a 15, a 14. A lot of folks ended up with high strength and dex because they didn't really understand what stats were for and put the first rolls in the first stats. But not all of them, the Green Mosquito put her 15 in intelligence. The last few rolls were not great, a 6 and 5 if I remember correctly.
I told everyone to put a +1 next to stats with 13 or higher and -1 next to 8 or lower. This was very confusing to all. They thought it was a math equation that was altering their stat ("You mean I add one to my strength?") Next time I'll just say "put a plus sign/put a minus sign."
Class choices were my regular Fighter, Wizard, Cleric. I almost eliminated Cleric to keep things simpler, but was afraid of cutting the game down so much it didn't resemble itself anymore.
The Green Mosquito chose MU as well as the 10 year old girl. The young couple both chose clerics, Pandora and Parsifal. Somewhere around here Pandora's player seriously asked "Wait, if you don't know what you are going to be until you roll, how do you know what kind of costume to wear?" To my exasperated "Arrgh, we don't wear costumes!"
The rest of the folks played fighters. I thought the crew was big enough to not mess with hirelings. As much as I was tempted to try out my new simple mental powers sub-system, folks were having enough trouble taking everything in as it was. I didn't even want to mess with equipment and armor. I just told everyone but the MUs that they had chainmail and shields and what to write next to "armor." (Yeah, chainmail was probably too much. I could have made it leather, but it was a snap decision and since I was denying them choices in choosing equipment I erred on the side of their safety) No messing with equipment. I just told the MUs what spells to write down. I gave the clerics the little booklet with miracles and told them they could ask for anything but these were some ideas. I didn't even mention weapons until the first combat, because this was all taking long enough. They kept asking me things like: "Are we all on the same team?" "What are you playing?" "How do we win?" I tried to answer these as briskly as possible (don't die, find the treasure) because I wanted to get rolling.
I will say that I didn't expend as much energy as I normally would trying to make sure the two younger players got spotlight and understood everything. They both had some comprehension issues, I didn't realize until much later that the girl was having language issues- English not being her first language. I think now that she didn't know what "cast," "spell," and maybe even "wizard" meant. I didn't know that then. I was also thinking that these 10 year olds will have years to try D&D again, but these older, D&D mocking folks, I had to win them over.
The final crew:
Old Long Johnson - F (played by Jeff, the only one with experience)
.com - F (*inside joke)
Big Black - talking gorilla F
Parsifal - DP
Pandora - DP
The Green Mosquito - fairy? MU
Opal - MU
I asked the party for a marching order and explained that those with higher life should probably be up front. Also a good rear guard. They entered the dungeon. I had seen that the nearly identical barracks rooms were confusing to Jeff when we played on the way up, so I gave each a unique carved mural theme this time: mountains, forest, mountain lake, foothills.
They pretty much followed door priority, choosing open hallways over doors. The second room held Sol's corpse and two little naked gopher things eating on it. Those won initiative and both preceded to miss. The Green Mosquito was quick to want to cast sleep. I told her she could, but reminded her it was like a shotgun shell, she only had one. She held off and the two toughies in the front rank, Old Long Johnson and Pandora, engaged. They both hit. Then I asked "What weapon do you see yourself having?" Battle axe for OLJ, though I reminded him it couldn't be two-handed if he wanted to use his shield, and machete for Pandora (yeah, not a blunt, sue me, I was trying to make it fast and exciting). I described back to them how they sliced the little buggers in half. Everyone seemed engaged and happy about that.
We broke there for tri-tip. I'm guessing all of character creation and play up though that first combat took close to 30 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when after dinner people were eager to get back into the game and see what would happen. I think the natural curiosity of exploration is an easy one to take advantage of.
They didn't really investigate the brass mech suit. They continued on until they opened the door that held two ratipedes devouring Sol's dead hireling. The creatures got initiative, attacked, and both missed again! This time the front two pcs missed, though, and two other players got to cut these things in two, Parsifal and .com getting their first ever rpg kills.
At this point OLJ with his 5 intelligence suggested they search the body, because Jeff knew she had the magic ring on her. I know some DM's might be a stickler about preventing this kind of meta-game information use, but I think it is kind of amusing watching the player try to come up with some in-game justification for why we should do this thing all of a sudden. Also, I am sympathetic with players because there really isn't any way for them to purge that meta knowledge. They found the ring but no one tried it on.
Oh, also something I forgot from Jeff's run through of the dungeon. When he, and also Pandora in this excursion, encountered the ring's inscription he asked if he could read it. I asked him, and Pandora now, "Is Latin a language you want to know?" And they both thought about it and said something to the effect "yeah, as a priest I would probably know that." This would mean more if we had a continued campaign, but I liked handling languages that way.
The party found a storage room and decided to get some tools. It was interesting to see these total neophytes limiting their own encumbrance; "You're strong you can carry a pick. I'll carry a shovel."
After some confusion about which way to go the party had some excitement at finding a secret door, only to realize it led into a room they'd already seen. They ended up heading down a hallway with a stench like wet dog. They encountered a long piece of scat with what looked like a fingerbone in it (this and the smell was me trying to warn them that they were getting closer to something dangerous-- the troll). Pandora decides to taste the crap. I loved it, here was someone who'd mocked D&D and yet instinctively got the fun of goofily interacting with stuff in the world. Going along with my desire to tap in to player experiences and memories I asked her "What is something that tastes really nasty to you?" She eventually said, "cottage cheese." I said "Ok, it tastes like cottage cheese . . . and there's a human toe nail in it." hehehe.
By this time it was getting late and I knew the encounter with the troll was going to end our session one way or another. I didn't imagine they could take it out, but hoped someone might be able to flee and survive. On encountering the troll, the party managed to get initiative. Both clerics asked for miracles to command the creature, first "Stop", then "Go," Neither miracle was answered. Opal tried casting Sleep on it, nothing happened. OLJ tried to hit and missed. Next the gorilla attempted to grapple and succeeded. Hmm, I thought, maybe they will manage somehow to survive this. The Green Mosquito cast Charm Person. And here I'll probably be stripped of my DM certification. I hesitated, is a troll a person? In my world I consider them able to speak. They are smart enough to be cunning and are humanoid in shape (hey, the 1e version works on lizardmen, troglodytes, and hobgoblins!). I decided to let the spell work on it, but warned her that it had a chance to shake it off. The troll failed its save. It became friendly toward the Green Mosquito. She asked it to lead them to the treasure and they would feed it.
So, the troll, did just that, hugging the walls past pit traps, going through secret doors, heading straight to the old Dwarven treasure chamber. The whole time I was trying to creep them out with improvised dialogue, and acting like each secret door was a dead end. Finally at the chamber, they found nothing but a pile of cinders. A little discouraged, they started to dig through it to find beautiful, glistening diamonds.
When requested, the troll led the party back to the entrance room. Pandora finally searched a pile of trash in that first room to find a warm, pink potion ("It's Pepto-Bismol") and drank it. She was shrunk to 6". Finally Big Black tried the ring, but nothing seemed to happen. Pandora but it around her neck to the same effect. The party left the dungeon. Everyone lived.
There were some comments about how it was easy. I tried to explain to them how lucky they had been; that the troll could have killed them all.
Pandora's player was really intrigued about what I had written down and what I was improvising (I had so little in front of me). The younger players were fascinated by the map and my little encounter book with silhouettes. I heard Parsifal's player say "That's not how I'd imagined D&D to be at all," and several folks say "I'd play that again." Cool Deal.
I think I like playing with first time players more than anything. I like introducing them to how fun and easy this game can be, especially when they have negative preconceptions.
I would never imagine them to have played D&D (and turned out to be right. They don't really even have any video games experience). In fact, like most of the population, I would expect them to mock D&D players (which they did when it was brought up). I was surprised when they knew what LARPing was, but then was less so when it was followed by "lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt." So, LARPing was the easiest niche of our hobby to know because it is easiest to mock as a YouTube video.
Because of all this I would never have suggested playing D&D while camping with them. They had plenty to do, with hiking, fishing, swimming, and eating good food. But my friend Jeff who invited me shook things up a bit.
He's played with me before and knew I had a dungeon with me (the one he died in on the trip up). So he suggested to them that we play sometime during the trip. I was also inspired by the way he printed up lyrics for sing-a-longs around the camp fire even though he's still learning to play guitar. If he was willing to get up there and perform in front of everyone why shouldn't I?
Several days of camping passed. Fishing and hiking was done. We cooled of in a small pool with a waterfall, drank, and sang songs. On the last night we ended up in a situation where there was nothing to do but wait for a tri-tip to cook and the idea came up that we play. So we did. And it was a great success I think. Here's what happened:
When I asked who wanted to play I was very surprised when Jeff's 66 year-old dad said yes. He's a stoic, no-nonsense kind of guy. I think he said yes because when I asked his girlfriend right before him she had enthusiastically said yes.
Later, when I was trying to establish classes he said he wanted to be King Kong. I hesitated a bit and said "King Kong won't fit where you're going, do you want to be a gorilla?" He said "yes." "Do you speak? Are you a talking gorilla?" He said "yes." She wanted to be The Green Mosquito. I wasn't sure if she meant like a fairy or a tiny super hero but I asked her if she could fly. "Yes." Ok.
There were seven players in all. My buddy Jeff, his father and father's girlfriend, another male-female couple and two ten year olds, one female one male.
I knew that, because six were brand new to the whole concept of D&D, and we were basically playing in the dirt that I would have to keep things simple and get them moving as quickly as possible. I hadn't brought any character sheets, but was able to bum one of the song lyric pages. I folded that into 9 parts and tore it apart. I wrote a space for "Name," the six stat abbreviations, "life," and "armor" on these before handing them out. I didn't have enough writing utensils (In the future I should get a handful of those Ikea sized pencils).
I only had three six-siders and the cardboard bottom from a case of water bottles to roll in, so bless Jeff Rients for giving me the tool of party-style stat-rolling. Although, since I didn't have a lot of dice (or even a table) I just let them put the stat wherever they wanted rather than randomizing as he suggested. The first few rolls were good, a 15, a 14. A lot of folks ended up with high strength and dex because they didn't really understand what stats were for and put the first rolls in the first stats. But not all of them, the Green Mosquito put her 15 in intelligence. The last few rolls were not great, a 6 and 5 if I remember correctly.
I told everyone to put a +1 next to stats with 13 or higher and -1 next to 8 or lower. This was very confusing to all. They thought it was a math equation that was altering their stat ("You mean I add one to my strength?") Next time I'll just say "put a plus sign/put a minus sign."
Class choices were my regular Fighter, Wizard, Cleric. I almost eliminated Cleric to keep things simpler, but was afraid of cutting the game down so much it didn't resemble itself anymore.
The Green Mosquito chose MU as well as the 10 year old girl. The young couple both chose clerics, Pandora and Parsifal. Somewhere around here Pandora's player seriously asked "Wait, if you don't know what you are going to be until you roll, how do you know what kind of costume to wear?" To my exasperated "Arrgh, we don't wear costumes!"
The rest of the folks played fighters. I thought the crew was big enough to not mess with hirelings. As much as I was tempted to try out my new simple mental powers sub-system, folks were having enough trouble taking everything in as it was. I didn't even want to mess with equipment and armor. I just told everyone but the MUs that they had chainmail and shields and what to write next to "armor." (Yeah, chainmail was probably too much. I could have made it leather, but it was a snap decision and since I was denying them choices in choosing equipment I erred on the side of their safety) No messing with equipment. I just told the MUs what spells to write down. I gave the clerics the little booklet with miracles and told them they could ask for anything but these were some ideas. I didn't even mention weapons until the first combat, because this was all taking long enough. They kept asking me things like: "Are we all on the same team?" "What are you playing?" "How do we win?" I tried to answer these as briskly as possible (don't die, find the treasure) because I wanted to get rolling.
I will say that I didn't expend as much energy as I normally would trying to make sure the two younger players got spotlight and understood everything. They both had some comprehension issues, I didn't realize until much later that the girl was having language issues- English not being her first language. I think now that she didn't know what "cast," "spell," and maybe even "wizard" meant. I didn't know that then. I was also thinking that these 10 year olds will have years to try D&D again, but these older, D&D mocking folks, I had to win them over.
The final crew:
Old Long Johnson - F (played by Jeff, the only one with experience)
.com - F (*inside joke)
Big Black - talking gorilla F
Parsifal - DP
Pandora - DP
The Green Mosquito - fairy? MU
Opal - MU
I asked the party for a marching order and explained that those with higher life should probably be up front. Also a good rear guard. They entered the dungeon. I had seen that the nearly identical barracks rooms were confusing to Jeff when we played on the way up, so I gave each a unique carved mural theme this time: mountains, forest, mountain lake, foothills.
They pretty much followed door priority, choosing open hallways over doors. The second room held Sol's corpse and two little naked gopher things eating on it. Those won initiative and both preceded to miss. The Green Mosquito was quick to want to cast sleep. I told her she could, but reminded her it was like a shotgun shell, she only had one. She held off and the two toughies in the front rank, Old Long Johnson and Pandora, engaged. They both hit. Then I asked "What weapon do you see yourself having?" Battle axe for OLJ, though I reminded him it couldn't be two-handed if he wanted to use his shield, and machete for Pandora (yeah, not a blunt, sue me, I was trying to make it fast and exciting). I described back to them how they sliced the little buggers in half. Everyone seemed engaged and happy about that.
We broke there for tri-tip. I'm guessing all of character creation and play up though that first combat took close to 30 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when after dinner people were eager to get back into the game and see what would happen. I think the natural curiosity of exploration is an easy one to take advantage of.
They didn't really investigate the brass mech suit. They continued on until they opened the door that held two ratipedes devouring Sol's dead hireling. The creatures got initiative, attacked, and both missed again! This time the front two pcs missed, though, and two other players got to cut these things in two, Parsifal and .com getting their first ever rpg kills.
At this point OLJ with his 5 intelligence suggested they search the body, because Jeff knew she had the magic ring on her. I know some DM's might be a stickler about preventing this kind of meta-game information use, but I think it is kind of amusing watching the player try to come up with some in-game justification for why we should do this thing all of a sudden. Also, I am sympathetic with players because there really isn't any way for them to purge that meta knowledge. They found the ring but no one tried it on.
Oh, also something I forgot from Jeff's run through of the dungeon. When he, and also Pandora in this excursion, encountered the ring's inscription he asked if he could read it. I asked him, and Pandora now, "Is Latin a language you want to know?" And they both thought about it and said something to the effect "yeah, as a priest I would probably know that." This would mean more if we had a continued campaign, but I liked handling languages that way.
The party found a storage room and decided to get some tools. It was interesting to see these total neophytes limiting their own encumbrance; "You're strong you can carry a pick. I'll carry a shovel."
After some confusion about which way to go the party had some excitement at finding a secret door, only to realize it led into a room they'd already seen. They ended up heading down a hallway with a stench like wet dog. They encountered a long piece of scat with what looked like a fingerbone in it (this and the smell was me trying to warn them that they were getting closer to something dangerous-- the troll). Pandora decides to taste the crap. I loved it, here was someone who'd mocked D&D and yet instinctively got the fun of goofily interacting with stuff in the world. Going along with my desire to tap in to player experiences and memories I asked her "What is something that tastes really nasty to you?" She eventually said, "cottage cheese." I said "Ok, it tastes like cottage cheese . . . and there's a human toe nail in it." hehehe.
By this time it was getting late and I knew the encounter with the troll was going to end our session one way or another. I didn't imagine they could take it out, but hoped someone might be able to flee and survive. On encountering the troll, the party managed to get initiative. Both clerics asked for miracles to command the creature, first "Stop", then "Go," Neither miracle was answered. Opal tried casting Sleep on it, nothing happened. OLJ tried to hit and missed. Next the gorilla attempted to grapple and succeeded. Hmm, I thought, maybe they will manage somehow to survive this. The Green Mosquito cast Charm Person. And here I'll probably be stripped of my DM certification. I hesitated, is a troll a person? In my world I consider them able to speak. They are smart enough to be cunning and are humanoid in shape (hey, the 1e version works on lizardmen, troglodytes, and hobgoblins!). I decided to let the spell work on it, but warned her that it had a chance to shake it off. The troll failed its save. It became friendly toward the Green Mosquito. She asked it to lead them to the treasure and they would feed it.
So, the troll, did just that, hugging the walls past pit traps, going through secret doors, heading straight to the old Dwarven treasure chamber. The whole time I was trying to creep them out with improvised dialogue, and acting like each secret door was a dead end. Finally at the chamber, they found nothing but a pile of cinders. A little discouraged, they started to dig through it to find beautiful, glistening diamonds.
When requested, the troll led the party back to the entrance room. Pandora finally searched a pile of trash in that first room to find a warm, pink potion ("It's Pepto-Bismol") and drank it. She was shrunk to 6". Finally Big Black tried the ring, but nothing seemed to happen. Pandora but it around her neck to the same effect. The party left the dungeon. Everyone lived.
There were some comments about how it was easy. I tried to explain to them how lucky they had been; that the troll could have killed them all.
Pandora's player was really intrigued about what I had written down and what I was improvising (I had so little in front of me). The younger players were fascinated by the map and my little encounter book with silhouettes. I heard Parsifal's player say "That's not how I'd imagined D&D to be at all," and several folks say "I'd play that again." Cool Deal.
I think I like playing with first time players more than anything. I like introducing them to how fun and easy this game can be, especially when they have negative preconceptions.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Into the Dwarven Outpost
Before I go on to the camp-fire game I should tell the tale of my solo player.
Sol (Divine-Petitioner)
Cirrus - Hireling
Rumor said villagers were going into a cave and coming out with gold coins, until recently. Anyone going in lately hasn't come out.
Sol entered with his doughty hireling Cirrus. She is 60, constantly plucks at her short hair, and carries a spear. They have little gear between them except a 10' pole and a lantern.
On entering the first room Sol chooses to take take the open hallway to the left. In this room there is something that looks like a brass set of armor lying face-first into the corner. Someone has hastily barricaded an open hallway to the north. Sol is leery of the brass suit and only gives it a cursory examination.
Sol backtrack goes through several doors and finds himself in a room full of bunkbeds too short for normal humans. He searches the beds and finds a strange ring of mercury that has letters inside that read "Invictus Maneo." He gives the ring to Cirrus for safekeeping.
Another room, a few more doors and they encounter creatures that resemble a cross between serpents and rats. Sol manages to slam the door before the bulk of them get into the hall, killing one. But after some deliberation he decides to open the door again and engage. Cirrus falls in the combat. Sol manages to slam the door but flees the rat-things biting Cirrus.
Upon entering the room he found the ring in, he notices a glossy-grey crab-like thing scuttling toward the noise of their battle. He heads down the hall and dismantles the barricade. The creature follows. It opens up like a clam shell revealing three naked fleshy things like gophers. Sol fails to smash them with his mace. They clamber onto him. He dies with them tearing at his throat.
________________________________________________________________________
Some Thoughts
My friend was a little rusty, he hasn't played in probably a year or so. I knew he would have a hard time of it solo but I think he would have fared better if he had tried some miracles. His hireling was only dropped unconscious, if he had cast sanctuary he might have managed to save and revive her. Also, that ring was a ring of regeneration (I rolled that). If he had held onto it and put it on things probably would have gone differently.
A couple interesting DMy things. He asked Cirrus' advice several times and I as a DM had to act her part and try to do it while knowing everything about the place. Kind of a weird position to be in. As I always do when I find the game puts me in a weird spot I just rolled dice. If the result of 2d6 was high she was confident and aggressive, if low she was not.
And, it looks like another data point for Door Priority. The un-doored hallway was chosen over a door. The barricade was a little scarier than a door. the first part of the Dwarven escape route is a bit of an anomaly because I had a hard time describing it to him while he was driving. That little plus sign shape with a corridor heading up to its left is not an Easy-Map Dungeon.
Actually, a map you can describe to someone who is driving is probably a good touchstone for an Easy-Map dungeon.
Sol (Divine-Petitioner)
Cirrus - Hireling
Rumor said villagers were going into a cave and coming out with gold coins, until recently. Anyone going in lately hasn't come out.
Sol entered with his doughty hireling Cirrus. She is 60, constantly plucks at her short hair, and carries a spear. They have little gear between them except a 10' pole and a lantern.
On entering the first room Sol chooses to take take the open hallway to the left. In this room there is something that looks like a brass set of armor lying face-first into the corner. Someone has hastily barricaded an open hallway to the north. Sol is leery of the brass suit and only gives it a cursory examination.
Sol backtrack goes through several doors and finds himself in a room full of bunkbeds too short for normal humans. He searches the beds and finds a strange ring of mercury that has letters inside that read "Invictus Maneo." He gives the ring to Cirrus for safekeeping.
Another room, a few more doors and they encounter creatures that resemble a cross between serpents and rats. Sol manages to slam the door before the bulk of them get into the hall, killing one. But after some deliberation he decides to open the door again and engage. Cirrus falls in the combat. Sol manages to slam the door but flees the rat-things biting Cirrus.
Upon entering the room he found the ring in, he notices a glossy-grey crab-like thing scuttling toward the noise of their battle. He heads down the hall and dismantles the barricade. The creature follows. It opens up like a clam shell revealing three naked fleshy things like gophers. Sol fails to smash them with his mace. They clamber onto him. He dies with them tearing at his throat.
________________________________________________________________________
Some Thoughts
My friend was a little rusty, he hasn't played in probably a year or so. I knew he would have a hard time of it solo but I think he would have fared better if he had tried some miracles. His hireling was only dropped unconscious, if he had cast sanctuary he might have managed to save and revive her. Also, that ring was a ring of regeneration (I rolled that). If he had held onto it and put it on things probably would have gone differently.
A couple interesting DMy things. He asked Cirrus' advice several times and I as a DM had to act her part and try to do it while knowing everything about the place. Kind of a weird position to be in. As I always do when I find the game puts me in a weird spot I just rolled dice. If the result of 2d6 was high she was confident and aggressive, if low she was not.
And, it looks like another data point for Door Priority. The un-doored hallway was chosen over a door. The barricade was a little scarier than a door. the first part of the Dwarven escape route is a bit of an anomaly because I had a hard time describing it to him while he was driving. That little plus sign shape with a corridor heading up to its left is not an Easy-Map Dungeon.
Actually, a map you can describe to someone who is driving is probably a good touchstone for an Easy-Map dungeon.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Siren Song & the Beautiful Cap
About a year ago I had a conversation with Cyclopeatron where I told him I was interested in tapping into experiences and emotions players already have when they come to the table (not too horrible experiences of course). Well I got to try it out Friday and it seemed to work okay.
The party set sail to find the Animal Island and a moose in order to bring it back for a payoff bigger than they've ever achieved. On the second evening they came within range of a small isle and heard song. The crew was entranced and stopped working the sails. The captain started steering toward the isle until Weegi the mage put him to sleep. All the players could hear was the horrid squawking of sea birds. Well, except Sybil, she heard something different.
I asked her player to think of a song she remembered from high school, one that filled her with good feelings and a sense of nostalgia, but not sadness. She said "okay." I said you hear that song coming from the isle.
Weegie and Z were getting frantic and afraid as the crew seemed useless. Then Z pulled out his cap. The cap is infamous with the players because everyone who looks at it has to save or be charmed. And players don't like being charmed in the middle of a battle. Z even added the feather of a golden puma pheasant to his cap, which also charms, for a bonus (I thought why not).
The crew was immediately won back and after a little bit the ship was heading into the night away from the threat. I love how such a simple magic item has become artifact like in the combination of power and reluctance to use it.
The party set sail to find the Animal Island and a moose in order to bring it back for a payoff bigger than they've ever achieved. On the second evening they came within range of a small isle and heard song. The crew was entranced and stopped working the sails. The captain started steering toward the isle until Weegi the mage put him to sleep. All the players could hear was the horrid squawking of sea birds. Well, except Sybil, she heard something different.
I asked her player to think of a song she remembered from high school, one that filled her with good feelings and a sense of nostalgia, but not sadness. She said "okay." I said you hear that song coming from the isle.
Weegie and Z were getting frantic and afraid as the crew seemed useless. Then Z pulled out his cap. The cap is infamous with the players because everyone who looks at it has to save or be charmed. And players don't like being charmed in the middle of a battle. Z even added the feather of a golden puma pheasant to his cap, which also charms, for a bonus (I thought why not).
The crew was immediately won back and after a little bit the ship was heading into the night away from the threat. I love how such a simple magic item has become artifact like in the combination of power and reluctance to use it.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Animal Games
Had a great session Saturday night. My players gave up on the Undertavern after a cleric was brutally mauled by the Gulo. They sought out the old Animal Arena and much absurd fun was had. First bout Spirit Bear vs. Black Panther, and the only match to ever go into overtime (I forget now which won, but one player lost 300 silver on it). Second bout, the arena was flooded and jelly fish were set upon by a pack of wolves trained to kill invertebrates. Wolves won. Third bout was truly a nail-biter a koala vs. tortoise. Tortoise won.
My players have decided they want to enter the animal fighting business. So they headed back to the magical chest that leads to Animal Island and ended up encountering more Headless villagers in a favorable way. They obtained a third scroll for the animal making machine. They had Dog and Elephant, and now have Panda.
I have nothing prepared for animal fighting houses or tourneys, this was all originally a mingame meant to be entertaining.
I suppose there could be groups of citizens with colors like I've seen medieval Italy had competing, but that doesn't fit the tone exactly. That would be better if it were humans performing races or tumbling etc.
I could have it set up like Roman gladitorial houses with trainers and lineups. But I wonder if the absurd waste of animal life would better suit a few rich playboys amusing thmselves by competing in ostentatious displays of waste.
Not sure. What would you find most fun?
Some ideas:
This is sounding more and more like Pokemon, isn't it ;) Whic is one of the things I was thinking of when I designed animal island, trying to tap into things kids find fun.
_______________
Also, props to ZakS, I used a technique I saw on his blog where a player rolls on a random chart and can keep the result or choose the one above or below the number they rolled. Worked awesome, was hilarious. Was a great mix of randomness and player choice. The cleric that was resurrected had to choose between Bleeding, Boils, and Arousal as a permanent side effect.
Happened again with determining the newest animal scroll. The players had just been laughing it up about how a parrot would be funny, so they could make a parrot-headed elephant-- and also because long ago I introduced a parrot-pig to annoy them with which they summarily drowned in quicksand. And I'll be dipped if they didn't roll Parrot! But out of Panda, Parrot, and Peacock they chose the first. Not sure why, guess cause it has claws and might fight better.
My players have decided they want to enter the animal fighting business. So they headed back to the magical chest that leads to Animal Island and ended up encountering more Headless villagers in a favorable way. They obtained a third scroll for the animal making machine. They had Dog and Elephant, and now have Panda.
I have nothing prepared for animal fighting houses or tourneys, this was all originally a mingame meant to be entertaining.
I suppose there could be groups of citizens with colors like I've seen medieval Italy had competing, but that doesn't fit the tone exactly. That would be better if it were humans performing races or tumbling etc.
I could have it set up like Roman gladitorial houses with trainers and lineups. But I wonder if the absurd waste of animal life would better suit a few rich playboys amusing thmselves by competing in ostentatious displays of waste.
Not sure. What would you find most fun?
Some ideas:
- make transporting animals from the island difficult and dangerous
- have dangerous rivalries, animals poisoned- party jumped on day of fights
- have win-loss records for animals and animal heroes
- I could tie XP to how ostentatious the player displays are
- make players want to search for specific types of animals- we need x to combat y
- could make strategy involved-- players have a stable of animals to choose from for each fight
This is sounding more and more like Pokemon, isn't it ;) Whic is one of the things I was thinking of when I designed animal island, trying to tap into things kids find fun.
_______________
Also, props to ZakS, I used a technique I saw on his blog where a player rolls on a random chart and can keep the result or choose the one above or below the number they rolled. Worked awesome, was hilarious. Was a great mix of randomness and player choice. The cleric that was resurrected had to choose between Bleeding, Boils, and Arousal as a permanent side effect.
Happened again with determining the newest animal scroll. The players had just been laughing it up about how a parrot would be funny, so they could make a parrot-headed elephant-- and also because long ago I introduced a parrot-pig to annoy them with which they summarily drowned in quicksand. And I'll be dipped if they didn't roll Parrot! But out of Panda, Parrot, and Peacock they chose the first. Not sure why, guess cause it has claws and might fight better.
Monday, February 6, 2012
More Death in the Maw
You and your party are standing on a stone outcropping jutting out over a hole deep like the Grand Canyon. You notice three grey, legless things climbing silently but deftly towards you. They are fifty feet below. There is a rickety wooden elevator you rode down in, another rickety elevator going down farther, and a door into the cliff face. The door's inset handle has two inscriptions. One on the left, one on the right.
What do you do?
My players dithered around talking about the door. One mage threw a vial of bees at the creatures. He scored a critical hit, but they were just normal honey bees. I had the creature save to see if the bees made it fall but, no. Finally after the magic-user freshly rolled up this session was eviscerated, one of the fighters decided going through the door might be a good idea. His hand was amputated when he turned the sunken knob the wrong way. Things went down hill from there. A newly bought gazehound critically missed and fell to its death, a fighter critically missed, failed a dex check and fell to her death. The beloved hireling Pita, twice saved from death, was brought down again, and Weegie the magic-user with fresh scrolls scribed, spells freshly inscribed in his spell book, and a new custom crafted rope ladder died in a split second.
The one player and two hirelings left limped back up out of the maw. Everyone was bummed. To say it cast a pall on the evening would be accurate. Part of the problem is our infrequent playing makes the events of play disjointed and it is hard for them to learn as players. I mean, I think most of them had missile weapons. Why would you not use them in this situation that seems the reason you'd carry them around for? One of the magic-users even had magic missile memorized and didn't cast it!
Part of the problem is that one of my players has a strong personality and wants to make the decisions. I think he's driven at least one player to playing Tiny Tower on her phone. The magic user with magic missile was also on her phone but that's a first, maybe it was just some really exciting texts.
If I sound kind of defensive its because the usual happened "I killed them" they said in half-joking terms. "Were these boss monsters?" they asked stunned. The ghouls were randomly encountered. I rolled their targets randomly. I don't think ghouls would be considered impossible for 5 fighting types in plate and shield, 2 war dogs, and 2 magic-users. Especially when you encounter them 50 feet away and have time to prepare. Some of the party got into a shield wall, but on an outcropping, with backs to a wall that these creatures were climbing, it didn't do much good. The creatures flanked them and hit the mages behind the wall.
I'm not sure that I would have done as a player. An earlier party had a similar bad battle at this same spot with a cleric losing his hand too. I think only one party ever thought to rope themselves together (and that after losing someone over the side) even though traveling around the rim of this sheer, rail-less cliff face. There is no real set plan for if they are attacked by stirge which they know live in abundance in the Maw. Oh well, I hope they can come back from defeat feeling more hungry rather than giving up. I'll try to give them some tips now that I've reflected on Friday's session.
What do you do?
My players dithered around talking about the door. One mage threw a vial of bees at the creatures. He scored a critical hit, but they were just normal honey bees. I had the creature save to see if the bees made it fall but, no. Finally after the magic-user freshly rolled up this session was eviscerated, one of the fighters decided going through the door might be a good idea. His hand was amputated when he turned the sunken knob the wrong way. Things went down hill from there. A newly bought gazehound critically missed and fell to its death, a fighter critically missed, failed a dex check and fell to her death. The beloved hireling Pita, twice saved from death, was brought down again, and Weegie the magic-user with fresh scrolls scribed, spells freshly inscribed in his spell book, and a new custom crafted rope ladder died in a split second.
The one player and two hirelings left limped back up out of the maw. Everyone was bummed. To say it cast a pall on the evening would be accurate. Part of the problem is our infrequent playing makes the events of play disjointed and it is hard for them to learn as players. I mean, I think most of them had missile weapons. Why would you not use them in this situation that seems the reason you'd carry them around for? One of the magic-users even had magic missile memorized and didn't cast it!
Part of the problem is that one of my players has a strong personality and wants to make the decisions. I think he's driven at least one player to playing Tiny Tower on her phone. The magic user with magic missile was also on her phone but that's a first, maybe it was just some really exciting texts.
If I sound kind of defensive its because the usual happened "I killed them" they said in half-joking terms. "Were these boss monsters?" they asked stunned. The ghouls were randomly encountered. I rolled their targets randomly. I don't think ghouls would be considered impossible for 5 fighting types in plate and shield, 2 war dogs, and 2 magic-users. Especially when you encounter them 50 feet away and have time to prepare. Some of the party got into a shield wall, but on an outcropping, with backs to a wall that these creatures were climbing, it didn't do much good. The creatures flanked them and hit the mages behind the wall.
I'm not sure that I would have done as a player. An earlier party had a similar bad battle at this same spot with a cleric losing his hand too. I think only one party ever thought to rope themselves together (and that after losing someone over the side) even though traveling around the rim of this sheer, rail-less cliff face. There is no real set plan for if they are attacked by stirge which they know live in abundance in the Maw. Oh well, I hope they can come back from defeat feeling more hungry rather than giving up. I'll try to give them some tips now that I've reflected on Friday's session.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Washed Ashore
Friday night I ran my friend through my alabaster tower solo. I need to revise that thing because some of the puzzles are still too confusing or obscure. But it was fun. He ended up naked but for a loincloth and a turban stuffed with gems. The most fun I had was when he explored the grey drapes in the hidden treasure room which is a gate to the ethereal plane. He was creeped out in the muted twilight of the place and thought he was in the land of the dead. I have never DMed anyone in the etheral, so I had to decide what it was like. I finally decided it was slightly askew from reality, a little off-sync. So the water of the ocean was jelly-like and he could walk across it. He ended up dragging a stone canoe full of treasure across this ethereal ocean to another island that he saw in the normal plane of existence. Once there he found a crystalline looking crack and was able to squeeze through it into the mundane world.
The next day some of his mates woke up on the shore near him. So We had:
Toral - DP
Z - F
Fabrino hireling
Mika hireling
Pita hireling
Yestlick - MU
Spike - F
The party found themselves on a steep, terraced island with what looked like a structure of some sort at the top. They found a path in the jungle and started following it. A branch off the path seemed to lead toward drumming, they ignored it and pressed on. They soon came to a sandy spot with a skeleton half buried in it and lots of weathered white sticks. The skeleton had a beautiful cap on and something glistened in the crook of its arm bone. Toral and Spike immediately set out to investigate.
Spike's instincts kicked in and he jumped back. Toral found himself sinking in quicksand. Z used his Turban of Climbing to create a walkway to help. Just about then some skunkbats attacked. The party fended off the attack and retrieved the treasures from the skeleton. Spike took what turned out to be a silver scroll, Z put on the cap.
Creatures immediately started streaming out of the jungle attracted to it. There were rats with the heads of gulls, black swans with the heads of black vipers, more skunkbats, and a jaunty parrot-headed pig. Z, worried, walked out on his still-stiff turban, dooming the walking creatures to the quicksand.
A group of burly headless natives came out of the jungle dancing around Z and his cap (it turns out they had heads, just the heads of ants). When they saw the silver scroll in Spike's hands they started genuflecting. A battle ensued when more skunkbats showed up. Spike, Yestlick, and Fabrino ended up unconscious. Toral ended up 6 inches tall when he unknowingly drank a potion of Dimunition. Z was puking his guts out after being sprayed.
The headless natives scooped up the unconscious and took them back to their crude village where dancing began. They had two similar silver scrolls that they appeared to worship. Remarkably, they gave up these scrolls when asked by the party and, after healing the unconscious enough to wake them, followed the party along the jungle path.
They passed a waterfall and up into another, dryer, terrace. There they encountered giraffe-flamingos and were attacked by a panther with a pheasant tail. It was dicey for a bit as several of the party were entranced by the beast's beautiful tail. After that they made their way to the top of the island where a two story villa stood with several outbuildings. I'll tell that story later . . .
Some Thoughts
It was really fun because this was all played out by the campfire, no maps, no books, just dimly seen die rolls, BBQ hot dogs, s'mores, and cheap cerveza.
What turned into a running joke was how I was so proud of the parrot-pig and intended to annoy the party with its salty sayings and oinking when Spike . . . pushed it into the quicksand to die. Hehe, so much for piggy sue.
I was astounded by my reaction rolls. I had assumed the headless natives would be dangerous but I rolled two 11s and a 12 for various reaction checks. Never had rolls that high before. It turned from tense into some sort of Balearic islands session with bongos and dancing.
Another running joke was poor Toral stuck at 6" tall. I kept refering to him as Thumbelina. Also, one of the other players said, "Hey, wouldn't all his clothes stay big?" Realizing the amusing potential of this and seeing the look on Toral's player's face as he said "You don't give the DM ideas," I made it so and Toral was naked for the rest of the game. It gets weirder in the next session when he's riding around on a compelled donkey. Then I started calling him Mr. Godiva.
Another note: I hadn't seen my players for weeks. Apparently that was too long for them to go without D&D so one of my players started DMing. He had never played D&D before me, but is pretty confident. I asked "What version is he using?" They said some of your stuff, some of his, and I think he got a 4th edition book. Those 4th addition monsters have a lot of hit points!" Haha. I'm telling you this DIY, kit bashing, run whatever, culture is contagious. Long live the Resurgence.
One player was also asking, how much of this stuff is random and how much is in the books. I don't think he realized until encountering 4e that pretty much everything in my game I made or borrowed from other bloggers. So all that effort to make stuff and they didn't realize I wasn't just pulling it out of a book, o_O
The next day some of his mates woke up on the shore near him. So We had:
Toral - DP
Z - F
Fabrino hireling
Mika hireling
Pita hireling
Yestlick - MU
Spike - F
The party found themselves on a steep, terraced island with what looked like a structure of some sort at the top. They found a path in the jungle and started following it. A branch off the path seemed to lead toward drumming, they ignored it and pressed on. They soon came to a sandy spot with a skeleton half buried in it and lots of weathered white sticks. The skeleton had a beautiful cap on and something glistened in the crook of its arm bone. Toral and Spike immediately set out to investigate.
Spike's instincts kicked in and he jumped back. Toral found himself sinking in quicksand. Z used his Turban of Climbing to create a walkway to help. Just about then some skunkbats attacked. The party fended off the attack and retrieved the treasures from the skeleton. Spike took what turned out to be a silver scroll, Z put on the cap.
Creatures immediately started streaming out of the jungle attracted to it. There were rats with the heads of gulls, black swans with the heads of black vipers, more skunkbats, and a jaunty parrot-headed pig. Z, worried, walked out on his still-stiff turban, dooming the walking creatures to the quicksand.
A group of burly headless natives came out of the jungle dancing around Z and his cap (it turns out they had heads, just the heads of ants). When they saw the silver scroll in Spike's hands they started genuflecting. A battle ensued when more skunkbats showed up. Spike, Yestlick, and Fabrino ended up unconscious. Toral ended up 6 inches tall when he unknowingly drank a potion of Dimunition. Z was puking his guts out after being sprayed.
The headless natives scooped up the unconscious and took them back to their crude village where dancing began. They had two similar silver scrolls that they appeared to worship. Remarkably, they gave up these scrolls when asked by the party and, after healing the unconscious enough to wake them, followed the party along the jungle path.
They passed a waterfall and up into another, dryer, terrace. There they encountered giraffe-flamingos and were attacked by a panther with a pheasant tail. It was dicey for a bit as several of the party were entranced by the beast's beautiful tail. After that they made their way to the top of the island where a two story villa stood with several outbuildings. I'll tell that story later . . .
Some Thoughts
It was really fun because this was all played out by the campfire, no maps, no books, just dimly seen die rolls, BBQ hot dogs, s'mores, and cheap cerveza.
What turned into a running joke was how I was so proud of the parrot-pig and intended to annoy the party with its salty sayings and oinking when Spike . . . pushed it into the quicksand to die. Hehe, so much for piggy sue.
I was astounded by my reaction rolls. I had assumed the headless natives would be dangerous but I rolled two 11s and a 12 for various reaction checks. Never had rolls that high before. It turned from tense into some sort of Balearic islands session with bongos and dancing.
Another running joke was poor Toral stuck at 6" tall. I kept refering to him as Thumbelina. Also, one of the other players said, "Hey, wouldn't all his clothes stay big?" Realizing the amusing potential of this and seeing the look on Toral's player's face as he said "You don't give the DM ideas," I made it so and Toral was naked for the rest of the game. It gets weirder in the next session when he's riding around on a compelled donkey. Then I started calling him Mr. Godiva.
Another note: I hadn't seen my players for weeks. Apparently that was too long for them to go without D&D so one of my players started DMing. He had never played D&D before me, but is pretty confident. I asked "What version is he using?" They said some of your stuff, some of his, and I think he got a 4th edition book. Those 4th addition monsters have a lot of hit points!" Haha. I'm telling you this DIY, kit bashing, run whatever, culture is contagious. Long live the Resurgence.
One player was also asking, how much of this stuff is random and how much is in the books. I don't think he realized until encountering 4e that pretty much everything in my game I made or borrowed from other bloggers. So all that effort to make stuff and they didn't realize I wasn't just pulling it out of a book, o_O
Friday, June 3, 2011
The Rescue
Toral Powerless DP
Mollie Powerless DP
Athydas MU
Gail MU
Yestlick MU
G F
Janis hireling
le bouche hireling
Z F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Derick F
Jimbo hireling
Zigfried trained baboon
Luke F
Sarai Rogue
The party is in Mont St Brise, the City of Pilgrims, their ship has been quarantined the crew and pilot incarcerated, their cargo confiscated. They find that the prisoners are being held in the shrine of St Letholdus, the pilgrimage destination in the city. They run into Luke and Sarai, brother and sister, whose mother is also being held for witchery. The prisoners will be burned in a week.
The party follows the throng of pilgrims up the main processional and into the shrine to get a sense of the place. The shrine is a three story, damaged keep with two entrances, pilgrims enter by one and exit by the other.
After being prevented from scouting the castle courtyard, Luke reveals he has an inborn ability to become invisible and proceeds to explore the shrine itself. He goes down a set of stairs and finds a dungeon just below the shrine. His mother is there, along with the ship's crew, the heretic Isabelle and the laodah (ships pilot).
There is also small sewage grate set in the floor. He decides to see if he can exit via it. In the noisome darkness he has a hard time navigating, turning one way then another, at one point passing withing breathing distance of a silent, squatting figure. He eventually finds his way out a grate, into the moat.
Mollie, Sarai and Yestlick decide to circumnavigate the castle. They find several tall trees next to the walls and several sewage grates emptying into the filthy moat. They see Luke as he wades out of a grate.
After much planning, the party decides a two prong approach: one group will enter via the sewers while the other makes a loud distraction.
Sarai unlocks a grate, the team enters the sewer, finds the passage up into the dungeon with some trouble and begins unlocking the prisoner's cells. G had learned enough of the sailors' language to know how to say "go down, bastards." There was some tension about whether Isabelle would come because she seemed happy to martyr herself. Her decision to escape with the rest made the party very happy.
Above ground, Toral was winding up into a sermon about the falseness of this shrine. Z turns himself into a wolf as part of the play. The whole scene is being watched by Sarai through a weird eye-in-egg so the teams can coordinate themselves. Toral is winning over the crowd as the guards close in.
Back in the sewer, Mollie is leading the long line of prisoners to freedom when they come to a dead end (first complication) much confusion ensues. A figure comes out of the darkness at the back of the group where G is. He misses with a thrown dagger and then it is upon him, clawing and biting. He is paralyzed and the figure begins eating the flesh from his face.
The rest of the sewer team rushes back towards the fight but isn't very successful. Suddenly a light blossoms in the tunnel as Isabelle, heretic worshipper of St Cecily, drives the foul thing off. The team figures out they can dig through the loose earth that has caved in their exit, Luke and Yestlick drag the stiff G. The prisoners pour out into the moat.
Back above ground Toral is delivering a stemwinder (and the video being Facebooked) when a wagon begins leaving the castle by pushing right through the crowd (second complication). The party finds the wagon is loaded with corpses (of the ill who have died) and Toral's implications that they have been killed by the Order of St Letholdus drives the crowd wild. they begin attacking the guards as Athydas puts the wagon driver to sleep. He also puts one of the draft horses to sleep. He jumps down to cut the sleeping horse free as Z and his hirelings run into the shrine to snatch some of the offertory gold. Finally, they jump on the wagon and proceed out the gate just as the straggle of prisoners is coming around in the moat. Those all jump in the wagon, ad furious descent down the processional ends up with the party being dumped in the sea. The still-paralyzed G is helped aboard and the party hastily sets sail in their ship.
Unknown to them, their sacks with 12,000 silver pieces were one floor up in the shrine.
_________________________________
Some Thoughts
If you take anything from this, ladies and gentlemen, it should be that a DM can make plenty of big mistakes and everyone still have a rip-roaring time. So, learn from your mistakes, but don't let the fear of making them keep you from DMing.
I'll post next with some specific ideas about running a heist, but a few more general thoughts on last Friday's session:
10 is too many people playing all at once, at least for that space.
I learned from watching I Hit it With My Axe to give one-time visitors something special to give them some spotlight. What I have learned though is don't give new players information that will be important to the party. They have too much to absorb as it is. They will forget. They won't tell the party when they need too. Give them powers or things. Giving Luke's player the ability to turn invisible for 30 minutes once a day was great, he became pivotal early on (it also gave a reason to get involved with the party-- his mother was being burned because she had powers too). Giving Sarai's players the eggs of Chinweike also worked well, making her important once the heist started. Oh, I also told her she spoke Arabic. She was thrilled when she read the magic word that activated Z's turban of climbing (finally).
If you want to give information that will incorporate new players, give it to the old hands who already know that these new players will need to be woven in somehow. I guess you could say they are more meta savy, where new players are trying to figure out the imagined world itself.
Big d30 rule for the win again. Toral chose to roll it, got a 30, and the crowd of leprous amputees began assaulting all the guards in their fervor at Toral's sermon.
I seemed to handle two separated groups okay, switching them back and forth quickly.
I could have done a better job of trying to draw in the quietest 3 players. I did some, but with the volume of people in the room and all the stuff I was juggling there were stretches that they were too quiet.
The players totally misunderstood my portrayal of the shrine. I guess they thought a D&D shrine would have sick folk go in one door and come out well from the other door. I'm thinking that divine healing is as rare in my world as magic use. They thought the whole city was an evil scam. I was trying to depict it how I envisioned a real medieval pilgrim city might function. Through that lens, Toral's actions seem almost evil: he's fomenting revolt and violence against dedicated Allfatherans etc.
Now the party is back in the same ship, with the same crew, and almost the same passengers, minus their cash. They are doing it wrong, haha. I'm frantically trying to prepare for where they might go next. I'm working on a city dependent on slave labor, with canals, and an invisible dungeon.
Mollie Powerless DP
Athydas MU
Gail MU
Yestlick MU
G F
Janis hireling
le bouche hireling
Z F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Derick F
Jimbo hireling
Zigfried trained baboon
Luke F
Sarai Rogue
The party is in Mont St Brise, the City of Pilgrims, their ship has been quarantined the crew and pilot incarcerated, their cargo confiscated. They find that the prisoners are being held in the shrine of St Letholdus, the pilgrimage destination in the city. They run into Luke and Sarai, brother and sister, whose mother is also being held for witchery. The prisoners will be burned in a week.
The party follows the throng of pilgrims up the main processional and into the shrine to get a sense of the place. The shrine is a three story, damaged keep with two entrances, pilgrims enter by one and exit by the other.
After being prevented from scouting the castle courtyard, Luke reveals he has an inborn ability to become invisible and proceeds to explore the shrine itself. He goes down a set of stairs and finds a dungeon just below the shrine. His mother is there, along with the ship's crew, the heretic Isabelle and the laodah (ships pilot).
There is also small sewage grate set in the floor. He decides to see if he can exit via it. In the noisome darkness he has a hard time navigating, turning one way then another, at one point passing withing breathing distance of a silent, squatting figure. He eventually finds his way out a grate, into the moat.
Mollie, Sarai and Yestlick decide to circumnavigate the castle. They find several tall trees next to the walls and several sewage grates emptying into the filthy moat. They see Luke as he wades out of a grate.
After much planning, the party decides a two prong approach: one group will enter via the sewers while the other makes a loud distraction.
Sarai unlocks a grate, the team enters the sewer, finds the passage up into the dungeon with some trouble and begins unlocking the prisoner's cells. G had learned enough of the sailors' language to know how to say "go down, bastards." There was some tension about whether Isabelle would come because she seemed happy to martyr herself. Her decision to escape with the rest made the party very happy.
Above ground, Toral was winding up into a sermon about the falseness of this shrine. Z turns himself into a wolf as part of the play. The whole scene is being watched by Sarai through a weird eye-in-egg so the teams can coordinate themselves. Toral is winning over the crowd as the guards close in.
Back in the sewer, Mollie is leading the long line of prisoners to freedom when they come to a dead end (first complication) much confusion ensues. A figure comes out of the darkness at the back of the group where G is. He misses with a thrown dagger and then it is upon him, clawing and biting. He is paralyzed and the figure begins eating the flesh from his face.
The rest of the sewer team rushes back towards the fight but isn't very successful. Suddenly a light blossoms in the tunnel as Isabelle, heretic worshipper of St Cecily, drives the foul thing off. The team figures out they can dig through the loose earth that has caved in their exit, Luke and Yestlick drag the stiff G. The prisoners pour out into the moat.
Back above ground Toral is delivering a stemwinder (and the video being Facebooked) when a wagon begins leaving the castle by pushing right through the crowd (second complication). The party finds the wagon is loaded with corpses (of the ill who have died) and Toral's implications that they have been killed by the Order of St Letholdus drives the crowd wild. they begin attacking the guards as Athydas puts the wagon driver to sleep. He also puts one of the draft horses to sleep. He jumps down to cut the sleeping horse free as Z and his hirelings run into the shrine to snatch some of the offertory gold. Finally, they jump on the wagon and proceed out the gate just as the straggle of prisoners is coming around in the moat. Those all jump in the wagon, ad furious descent down the processional ends up with the party being dumped in the sea. The still-paralyzed G is helped aboard and the party hastily sets sail in their ship.
Unknown to them, their sacks with 12,000 silver pieces were one floor up in the shrine.
_________________________________
Some Thoughts
If you take anything from this, ladies and gentlemen, it should be that a DM can make plenty of big mistakes and everyone still have a rip-roaring time. So, learn from your mistakes, but don't let the fear of making them keep you from DMing.
I'll post next with some specific ideas about running a heist, but a few more general thoughts on last Friday's session:
10 is too many people playing all at once, at least for that space.
I learned from watching I Hit it With My Axe to give one-time visitors something special to give them some spotlight. What I have learned though is don't give new players information that will be important to the party. They have too much to absorb as it is. They will forget. They won't tell the party when they need too. Give them powers or things. Giving Luke's player the ability to turn invisible for 30 minutes once a day was great, he became pivotal early on (it also gave a reason to get involved with the party-- his mother was being burned because she had powers too). Giving Sarai's players the eggs of Chinweike also worked well, making her important once the heist started. Oh, I also told her she spoke Arabic. She was thrilled when she read the magic word that activated Z's turban of climbing (finally).
If you want to give information that will incorporate new players, give it to the old hands who already know that these new players will need to be woven in somehow. I guess you could say they are more meta savy, where new players are trying to figure out the imagined world itself.
Big d30 rule for the win again. Toral chose to roll it, got a 30, and the crowd of leprous amputees began assaulting all the guards in their fervor at Toral's sermon.
I seemed to handle two separated groups okay, switching them back and forth quickly.
I could have done a better job of trying to draw in the quietest 3 players. I did some, but with the volume of people in the room and all the stuff I was juggling there were stretches that they were too quiet.
The players totally misunderstood my portrayal of the shrine. I guess they thought a D&D shrine would have sick folk go in one door and come out well from the other door. I'm thinking that divine healing is as rare in my world as magic use. They thought the whole city was an evil scam. I was trying to depict it how I envisioned a real medieval pilgrim city might function. Through that lens, Toral's actions seem almost evil: he's fomenting revolt and violence against dedicated Allfatherans etc.
Now the party is back in the same ship, with the same crew, and almost the same passengers, minus their cash. They are doing it wrong, haha. I'm frantically trying to prepare for where they might go next. I'm working on a city dependent on slave labor, with canals, and an invisible dungeon.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Prison Break Successful
Old School gaming isn't dead as long as there are Old School DMs. I had 10 players last night, a personal record. Two were relatively new to gaming.
These youngsters and their technology, videos were on Facebook and receiving comments before our session was even over (There were dramatic morality play distractions involved in the session).
Of course, there were several things I could have done better. I don't feel like writing it all up now. I'll just give you one clear example: reconnaissance should probably be a session of its own. Thinking about it now, many heist movies start with the crew knowing all the info they need already, Ocean's 11, for example.
Jenga didn't get used, prisoners were saved, but the 12,000 in silver was left behind. With that, I think I'm taking a little blogging vacation folks. Take care.
| Why are those two dudes over there eating instead of excitedly taking part, Telecanter?! |
Of course, there were several things I could have done better. I don't feel like writing it all up now. I'll just give you one clear example: reconnaissance should probably be a session of its own. Thinking about it now, many heist movies start with the crew knowing all the info they need already, Ocean's 11, for example.
| My heist map and record sheet in a report cover |
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Into the Pilgrim City
Toral -- Divine-Petitioner stripped of power
Mollie-- Divine-Petitioner stripped of power
Z - Fighter
So, last session left the party in kind of a jam. I was stressing about whether the players would fight to the death or go into custody and then only three players showed up Friday night. You just can't predict as a DM can you?
The players ended up going into custody quietly. In preparing for the session I needed to know how to handle the legal aspects of the situation. I know that the Waterdeep boxed set and the City System boxed set had legal systems in them (or at least I think they both did), but mine are in storage.
I have the Judges Guild Ready Reference sheets, which has a few pages on the outcomes of crime. But, and this is one of those rare instances, I think it is too simplified. What I mean is, the punishment for all crimes is rolled on the same table with modifiers for the severity. So, you can be drawn and quartered for peeing in the road or merely be fined for murder. Now that might fit the chaotic, random character of certain fantasy cities, but I wanted something that fit more with the context.
It so happened that I had just received Vornheim in the mail. And I wondered, hmm, does he have anything in there about crime and punishment. And lo and behold he did. Now, it amounts to a single chart to roll on, so it doesn't really solve the problem of crime severity above, but it tackles a problem I didn't even know I had. In a nutshell, Zak says that playing in a city your players are likely to get into trouble with the law and that punishments should be fun and interesting because they are part of the game. That was new to me and made great sense. So I decided to roll on the table.
If I might digress a bit. I don't really grok cities. I'm thoroughly suburban. In fact, I would argue that the boring surroundings of my youth contributed to my desire to explore imagined worlds. This doesn't mean I don't like cities, I think I would love to live in Krakow, but I don't intuitively get them. This is probably why Nidus, my first city after coming back into the hobby, is completely abstracted and also probably why I have had weeks to prepare and I still don't have a map of the city my party just docked at.
So, I rolled on Zak's table of legal situations and got 6: the defendant is set free to run for an hour, after which the militia comes after them, unless they find a hidden sanctuary stone. Zak also provides a technique elsewhere by which you can create city streets as you go. But . . . I chickened out. I was wracking my brains on how to make that hour of searching abstracted streets exciting for my three players. I couldn't think of anything because the city is still nebulous to me. (I think maybe what I should do is grab those old Lankhmar city geomorphs and build a map then randomly decide what each neighborhood consists of.) Hopefully I'll get better at stuff like this.
But don't fret, friends, because right under 6 was entry 7 which requires the defendant to put on a play. I knew that was exactly perfect, both for this smaller player count-- they would be more comfortable being goofy, and for this city-- it is a very important religious pilgrimage city so the play could be allegorical or a morality tale.
And I was right. I gave my players 15 minutes to create a play they would put on for a throng of pilgrims and if it was good (read: amused me) they would be freed. The beautiful piece of art that they came up with was called Why You Shouldn't Have Sex With A Whore and met with great jolliment from the crowd (read:me). They were released.
It was awesome to hear them stressing about the political and religious implications of their little drama, stuff like: "No, we can't have the whore burned at the stake we don't want to encourage that kind of behavior."
Now, I might want to try and produce a system of laws that would deter players from doing really heinous things (say automatic execution for burning down a neighborhood) but allow for Zak's chart to handle everything else. I have to give you props sir, your experience and insight into city play made for a better night for me and my friends.
As far as events went, I'm twisting things a little as DM-- the party did something pretty drastic to a member of a holy fighting order, how could they get off with so little punishment? I decided that there is some friction between the Holy Order of St Letholdus and the regular Church hierarchy. Seeing as Roger wasn't harmed in the assault, the release of his assailants is a poke in the eye from the Church. And the Church got to confiscate all the cargo which was about 12,000 sp ; )
This Friday we'll see if they decide to do the right thing and rescue the laodah, his crew, and the heretic.
Mollie-- Divine-Petitioner stripped of power
Z - Fighter
So, last session left the party in kind of a jam. I was stressing about whether the players would fight to the death or go into custody and then only three players showed up Friday night. You just can't predict as a DM can you?
The players ended up going into custody quietly. In preparing for the session I needed to know how to handle the legal aspects of the situation. I know that the Waterdeep boxed set and the City System boxed set had legal systems in them (or at least I think they both did), but mine are in storage.
I have the Judges Guild Ready Reference sheets, which has a few pages on the outcomes of crime. But, and this is one of those rare instances, I think it is too simplified. What I mean is, the punishment for all crimes is rolled on the same table with modifiers for the severity. So, you can be drawn and quartered for peeing in the road or merely be fined for murder. Now that might fit the chaotic, random character of certain fantasy cities, but I wanted something that fit more with the context.
It so happened that I had just received Vornheim in the mail. And I wondered, hmm, does he have anything in there about crime and punishment. And lo and behold he did. Now, it amounts to a single chart to roll on, so it doesn't really solve the problem of crime severity above, but it tackles a problem I didn't even know I had. In a nutshell, Zak says that playing in a city your players are likely to get into trouble with the law and that punishments should be fun and interesting because they are part of the game. That was new to me and made great sense. So I decided to roll on the table.
If I might digress a bit. I don't really grok cities. I'm thoroughly suburban. In fact, I would argue that the boring surroundings of my youth contributed to my desire to explore imagined worlds. This doesn't mean I don't like cities, I think I would love to live in Krakow, but I don't intuitively get them. This is probably why Nidus, my first city after coming back into the hobby, is completely abstracted and also probably why I have had weeks to prepare and I still don't have a map of the city my party just docked at.
So, I rolled on Zak's table of legal situations and got 6: the defendant is set free to run for an hour, after which the militia comes after them, unless they find a hidden sanctuary stone. Zak also provides a technique elsewhere by which you can create city streets as you go. But . . . I chickened out. I was wracking my brains on how to make that hour of searching abstracted streets exciting for my three players. I couldn't think of anything because the city is still nebulous to me. (I think maybe what I should do is grab those old Lankhmar city geomorphs and build a map then randomly decide what each neighborhood consists of.) Hopefully I'll get better at stuff like this.
But don't fret, friends, because right under 6 was entry 7 which requires the defendant to put on a play. I knew that was exactly perfect, both for this smaller player count-- they would be more comfortable being goofy, and for this city-- it is a very important religious pilgrimage city so the play could be allegorical or a morality tale.
And I was right. I gave my players 15 minutes to create a play they would put on for a throng of pilgrims and if it was good (read: amused me) they would be freed. The beautiful piece of art that they came up with was called Why You Shouldn't Have Sex With A Whore and met with great jolliment from the crowd (read:me). They were released.
It was awesome to hear them stressing about the political and religious implications of their little drama, stuff like: "No, we can't have the whore burned at the stake we don't want to encourage that kind of behavior."
Now, I might want to try and produce a system of laws that would deter players from doing really heinous things (say automatic execution for burning down a neighborhood) but allow for Zak's chart to handle everything else. I have to give you props sir, your experience and insight into city play made for a better night for me and my friends.
As far as events went, I'm twisting things a little as DM-- the party did something pretty drastic to a member of a holy fighting order, how could they get off with so little punishment? I decided that there is some friction between the Holy Order of St Letholdus and the regular Church hierarchy. Seeing as Roger wasn't harmed in the assault, the release of his assailants is a poke in the eye from the Church. And the Church got to confiscate all the cargo which was about 12,000 sp ; )
This Friday we'll see if they decide to do the right thing and rescue the laodah, his crew, and the heretic.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
To Save a Heretic
Last night's session:
Toral DP
Mollie DP
G F
Janis hireling
le bouche hireling
Z F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Derick F
Jimbo hireling
Zigfried trained baboon
Several days aboard the junk Haiyan. The wind freshened. Mermen swam alongside serenading the ship the first night. A sea hydra was spotted a long way off and avoided. Toral managed to Heal Pita (lesser miracles had failed previously). When he did she vomited a huge spider. The party dispatched it with little trouble.
They finally determined that the wolf pelt allows a person to turn into a wolf. Then things started turning sour.
G and Z took turns turning into a wolf and tormenting the prisoner Isabelle. This almost caused a confrontation with Roger. Z also took the dead spider and threw it into her cabin. G snuck in and bled her then healed her with his obsidian blade.
Finally, at all the terrified screams of the prisoner and the howling of a wolf, the laodah refused to pilot the ship, the crew refused to sail it. The ship was adrift.
The party hatched the fabulous plan of drawing the laodah away from Roger. He wouldn't go. Toral commanded him to go. Once away, G attacked Roger to subdue. Mollie Held him. He was taken below and tied up. The party had just come into view of Mont St Brise, City of Terraces, City of Pilgrims, City of Bells. The harbormaster's ship is coming out to meet them.
_________________________
Some Thoughts
What a train wreck. I have no idea why the few players instigating this waited until just before reaching the destination city before physically assaulting all NPCs involved. If they'd wanted to take this course of action, why not before, when Roger was sick with the plague? I can only think they were panicking, thinking they had to save Isabelle before they got to the city. But they could have talked with Roger and found out more about what would happen with her. It wasn't like she was going to be burnt on the beach, immediately. I think they are used to getting their way and feel entitled. There was a childishness to it.
Anyway, Toral's player was trying to hold back the fighters in their chaos and finally gave up and went along with them. I think he will be disappointed when his golden halo disappears and he loses all petition ability. He's going to have to atone for this somehow.
I did think the point when Mollie Held Roger was pretty badass. She's a petitioner like Toral, but more of a pagan. I asked her what it looked like when she did it, she said "Black rainbows."
But the party is going to be in for some trouble now, they're about to be inspected and have a dude tied up below decks that is in a holy order of which this city is the seat!
Toral DP
Mollie DP
G F
Janis hireling
le bouche hireling
Z F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Derick F
Jimbo hireling
Zigfried trained baboon
Several days aboard the junk Haiyan. The wind freshened. Mermen swam alongside serenading the ship the first night. A sea hydra was spotted a long way off and avoided. Toral managed to Heal Pita (lesser miracles had failed previously). When he did she vomited a huge spider. The party dispatched it with little trouble.
They finally determined that the wolf pelt allows a person to turn into a wolf. Then things started turning sour.
G and Z took turns turning into a wolf and tormenting the prisoner Isabelle. This almost caused a confrontation with Roger. Z also took the dead spider and threw it into her cabin. G snuck in and bled her then healed her with his obsidian blade.
Finally, at all the terrified screams of the prisoner and the howling of a wolf, the laodah refused to pilot the ship, the crew refused to sail it. The ship was adrift.
The party hatched the fabulous plan of drawing the laodah away from Roger. He wouldn't go. Toral commanded him to go. Once away, G attacked Roger to subdue. Mollie Held him. He was taken below and tied up. The party had just come into view of Mont St Brise, City of Terraces, City of Pilgrims, City of Bells. The harbormaster's ship is coming out to meet them.
_________________________
Some Thoughts
What a train wreck. I have no idea why the few players instigating this waited until just before reaching the destination city before physically assaulting all NPCs involved. If they'd wanted to take this course of action, why not before, when Roger was sick with the plague? I can only think they were panicking, thinking they had to save Isabelle before they got to the city. But they could have talked with Roger and found out more about what would happen with her. It wasn't like she was going to be burnt on the beach, immediately. I think they are used to getting their way and feel entitled. There was a childishness to it.
Anyway, Toral's player was trying to hold back the fighters in their chaos and finally gave up and went along with them. I think he will be disappointed when his golden halo disappears and he loses all petition ability. He's going to have to atone for this somehow.
I did think the point when Mollie Held Roger was pretty badass. She's a petitioner like Toral, but more of a pagan. I asked her what it looked like when she did it, she said "Black rainbows."
But the party is going to be in for some trouble now, they're about to be inspected and have a dude tied up below decks that is in a holy order of which this city is the seat!
Monday, May 9, 2011
How Dangerous the Sea?
Had a session on Friday and the party barely survived the Expert book's ocean encounter table. That thing is populated with multi-HD, giant monsters! I thought the ocean would facilitate sandbox-type play by making travel to various destinations easy, but not if it's deadlier to travel on than dry ground. Hear the tale of this journey and let me know what you think:
Athydas MU
Mollie DP
Toral DP
"G" F
Le Bouche hireling
Janis hireling
"Z" F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
The party is sailing North to the city of Mont St Brise to deliver a heretic to be burned at the stake (well, to help her escape). They know the prevailing winds are against them. The laodah told them that tacking into the wind like this, it will take 6 days to reach the city.
The first day out the wind died in the morning. Becalmed, they saw a giant crocodile slithering off the shore and heading toward them. It appeared as if they would have no chance against it. Having a vase full of potions that allow the control of water, several members of the party drank these draughts simultaneously, creating a wave surge to push them away from the beast. When things still looked dicey, Athydas cast a spell called The Story of the Wind which is meant to answer yes/no questions, but does so through wind. The breeze from the spell was enough to put the creature behind them.
The afternoon of the first day the wind freshened again. G and Z stripped of their armor and began learning to help the sailors with the sails. They are also trying to learn some of their language. In the dusk an odd wave was seen by its bioluminescent outline. It turned out to be the end of the tentacle of a Giant Squid.
A tentacle shot from the water and plucked Toral off the boat so expertly he dropped his mace and shield. G climbed the mast with Janis. Z helped Roger up from the hold (his feet were damaged by torture). Together they formed a circular shield wall with the rest of the party. The potions of water control were brought out again. Several people drank simultaneously and forced the water to push the tentacle clutching Toral out of the water. While hanging in air, Janis and G peppered it with arrows and it released Toral to the deck. Toral proceeded beneath decks, kneeled, and began Chanting.
Athydas tied himself to the mast with a rope and dipped his darts in giant scorpion venom. A tentacle swept him over the side. He managed to jab his dart into it several times. The great tentacle let go and slid down into the darkness. Toral came out of the hold with a glowing, golden halo that seems permanent. Perhaps his god wishes him to live.
_________________________
Some Thoughts
First of all, they have way too many of about five types of potion. I randomly determined these when they were in the Black Pyramid (where they messed with Time). The room they got the potions from pipes they dis-respectfully called the Soda-Shoppe, haha. Anyway, I thought the uses for the potions were creative and awesome, so I allowed it. Also it was burning like five of the potions at a time, so seems as good a way as any to use them up.
Also, another DM might have ruled differently on the poison killing such a large creature, but I thought it was smart, exciting, and the only way they would keep from getting TPKed, so I allowed it. How are you supposed to fight a giant squid from a ship?
One thing I had players do at the beginning of this session was take stock of all their items. I know Ben from Ars Ludi has said that the time players pay attention the most is when they get treasure, and I took note of this bit of Dming advice and tried to utilize it. But . . . uh, for my players if it isn't coin they throw it in a sack until I remind them of it sessions later (because it's something cool I made and want to see them use it!). They seemed to care not a whit that there were Arabic phrases on a bolt of cloth (Turban of Climbing) or the coracle in the dungeon (C'nor's Collapsible Coracle).
So this stocktaking is how they remembered they had all the potions. Also they had two identical rings. Playing around they finally figure out they are Rings of the Joined and seemed pretty excited about them. It was fun to describe to them what it felt like as they pushed weight and intelligence back and forth at each other, Mollie even feeling the muskiness of G's gender that she could pull toward herself and vice versa.
Remember all that blah blah blah about how I run my clerics, well, Toral just turned 4th level so I allowed him to take a permanent miraculous effect. He now has that halo. May be too low of a level to give it to him, but it seems pretty cool. Can't wait until they walk into the city with that glowing on his head.
But what the heck, a giant crocodile and a giant squid on the same day! There is no way they will survive 5 more days of this. Umm, now looking back at The Expert book, I see it only calls for one encounter check a day. So maybe the party can handle 5 more mega-monsters :)
I'm going to have to make my own sea encounter chart I guess, but how dangerous should it be to keep it challenging and yet not keep players from wanting to travel on it at all?
Athydas MU
Mollie DP
Toral DP
"G" F
Le Bouche hireling
Janis hireling
"Z" F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
The party is sailing North to the city of Mont St Brise to deliver a heretic to be burned at the stake (well, to help her escape). They know the prevailing winds are against them. The laodah told them that tacking into the wind like this, it will take 6 days to reach the city.
The first day out the wind died in the morning. Becalmed, they saw a giant crocodile slithering off the shore and heading toward them. It appeared as if they would have no chance against it. Having a vase full of potions that allow the control of water, several members of the party drank these draughts simultaneously, creating a wave surge to push them away from the beast. When things still looked dicey, Athydas cast a spell called The Story of the Wind which is meant to answer yes/no questions, but does so through wind. The breeze from the spell was enough to put the creature behind them.
The afternoon of the first day the wind freshened again. G and Z stripped of their armor and began learning to help the sailors with the sails. They are also trying to learn some of their language. In the dusk an odd wave was seen by its bioluminescent outline. It turned out to be the end of the tentacle of a Giant Squid.
A tentacle shot from the water and plucked Toral off the boat so expertly he dropped his mace and shield. G climbed the mast with Janis. Z helped Roger up from the hold (his feet were damaged by torture). Together they formed a circular shield wall with the rest of the party. The potions of water control were brought out again. Several people drank simultaneously and forced the water to push the tentacle clutching Toral out of the water. While hanging in air, Janis and G peppered it with arrows and it released Toral to the deck. Toral proceeded beneath decks, kneeled, and began Chanting.
Athydas tied himself to the mast with a rope and dipped his darts in giant scorpion venom. A tentacle swept him over the side. He managed to jab his dart into it several times. The great tentacle let go and slid down into the darkness. Toral came out of the hold with a glowing, golden halo that seems permanent. Perhaps his god wishes him to live.
_________________________
Some Thoughts
First of all, they have way too many of about five types of potion. I randomly determined these when they were in the Black Pyramid (where they messed with Time). The room they got the potions from pipes they dis-respectfully called the Soda-Shoppe, haha. Anyway, I thought the uses for the potions were creative and awesome, so I allowed it. Also it was burning like five of the potions at a time, so seems as good a way as any to use them up.
Also, another DM might have ruled differently on the poison killing such a large creature, but I thought it was smart, exciting, and the only way they would keep from getting TPKed, so I allowed it. How are you supposed to fight a giant squid from a ship?
One thing I had players do at the beginning of this session was take stock of all their items. I know Ben from Ars Ludi has said that the time players pay attention the most is when they get treasure, and I took note of this bit of Dming advice and tried to utilize it. But . . . uh, for my players if it isn't coin they throw it in a sack until I remind them of it sessions later (because it's something cool I made and want to see them use it!). They seemed to care not a whit that there were Arabic phrases on a bolt of cloth (Turban of Climbing) or the coracle in the dungeon (C'nor's Collapsible Coracle).
So this stocktaking is how they remembered they had all the potions. Also they had two identical rings. Playing around they finally figure out they are Rings of the Joined and seemed pretty excited about them. It was fun to describe to them what it felt like as they pushed weight and intelligence back and forth at each other, Mollie even feeling the muskiness of G's gender that she could pull toward herself and vice versa.
Remember all that blah blah blah about how I run my clerics, well, Toral just turned 4th level so I allowed him to take a permanent miraculous effect. He now has that halo. May be too low of a level to give it to him, but it seems pretty cool. Can't wait until they walk into the city with that glowing on his head.
But what the heck, a giant crocodile and a giant squid on the same day! There is no way they will survive 5 more days of this. Umm, now looking back at The Expert book, I see it only calls for one encounter check a day. So maybe the party can handle 5 more mega-monsters :)
I'm going to have to make my own sea encounter chart I guess, but how dangerous should it be to keep it challenging and yet not keep players from wanting to travel on it at all?
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Leaving the Tumbling Dungeon
Acch, I'm three play reports behind. Here's two:
4/22
"G" F
Le Bouche hireling
Janis hireling
"Z" F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Darkyo F
Hugelina F
The party intended to re-enter the dungeon to look for Zhang Ziyang who holds the knowledge to cure the crew of plague. Entering the first room they found a leather satchel with a root and a recipe signed by ZZ. They followed the recipe, administered to three of the crew members, two of which died an agonizing death in front of them. G feeling the accusations of the rest of the crew, drank from the concotion himself to show it wasn't intentional. He lived. (he rolled the Big d30)
They pushed into the dungeon recovering ground previously explored. There was a tense moment where G miscalculated turn time and was caught in the well room's cylindrycal passage as the dungeon turned. With some scrambling, a rope was thrown to him, he walked along the bottom of the water and survived several attacks by creatures that look like giant tadpoles-- with lots of teeth.
Then a lever was surely and firmly pulled. They found their way to the Alchemists Sleeping Chamber just as the dungeon was turning a way it had never turned before. The frantic party jumped to the gimballed bed. Pita, she-of-the-ever-bad-luck failed a roll and ended up in a squirming mass of grubs. The party pulled her out. And then realized someone was in the bed!
Zhang Ziyang. He said he couldn't remember anything. Under the bed were 6 drawers which revealed 2 silver rings, a bolt of folded cloth with an inscription in Arabic, a wolf's pelt and some gold. We stopped there, with the party having a slumber party.
4/29
Mollie DP
Toral DP
Athydas MU
"G" F
Le Bouche hireling
Janis hireling
"Z" F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Zhang Ziyang NPC
We started out with Toral and Mollie heading into the dungeon alone (the rest of the players were late anyway) to search for the rest of the folks, the sick crew was getting worse-- a few more days and they'd all be stranded here. Toral, who had grown a familiar with the Tumbling Dungeon's ways noticed at the first tumble that something was off. They soon found themselves faced with something new, the Component Library was open for browsing. Athydas (who joined the two above when his player showed up) decided to explore the shaft heading directly down with floating stone spheres in it. He was very aware that if the dungeon tumbled he would be in bad shape.
Eventually the party below saw the lantern light and yelled up. Ropes were rigged and the party all came up into the Component library. ZZ was consulted and the appropriate root was found. While this was happening Toral and Darkyo scouted out the central, spherical chamber to find a huge sphere of water slowly rotating in mid air. Within it were darting black shapes and a pale, teenaged body. Toral's hireling.
The party got the root and got out of Dodge. The concoction brewed and administered, the crew began to show signs of relief. Z administered some to the Knight of the Order of St Letholdus, who he seems to be trying to become friendly with. Just as the party sailed Zhang Ziyang said he was staying behind.
______________________
Some Thoughts
I need to do these sooner so the things I learned are more fresh in my mind. I improved my descriptions of the dungeon as they became more clear in my head. Poor Toral and Gail might have found the treasure trove if I had described the bed in its gimbal better. The brass library with all the spells embossed was never described well by me, I still need to clarify that one in my own head. I did figure out a simple way to fix my stair problem: floating, buoyant steps that stay where they are as the room rotates.
The session with all fighters was sort of boring, you need some magic to give players a wider range of options.
You can see how my constantly shifting player attendance can wreak havoc with any sensible narrative. But I make it dreamlike and let people join the party and leave it without making a big deal about it. When I go up a level as DM I think I'll try to implement Jeff Rients' table of Dungeon Doom to make sure partys aren't left in a dungeon at the end of a session. This dungeon would have made that a little harder of course, because finding the exit would have been a tricky.
This sucks for players too, though, Because Gail and Toral basically mapped the whole dungeon out and then, when they couldn't play, G and Z had to figure it all out again for themselves.
Giving the spell transcription costs has made a huge difference for the magic-users. They've been trying to kill seagulls to gather blood and quills, they are moving spells from scrolls to books and seem empowered in general.
Oh, I almost forgot, in that first session it was everybodies' birthday (or near it) and since it has been my tradition to give Boons to folks as gifts, three people wanted one.
"Okay, okay," I said. "Two of you can pick a hard core perk the other has to pick from the animal perks." Dice were rolled and Darkyo had to pick an animal. She chose a trained ferret. G chose the Obsidian Blade and Z chose the Iron Hammer, though I don't think he understands how, even as simple as it is, it works. Interestingly, G was speculating later whether his blade might have killed the grubs. Yes, it would have worked if he tried.
Some things my players never found out: Pita has been infested with a parasite and will start vomiting monsters soon. There were two witches. Zhang Ziyang was charmed. At the center of the dungeon, the reason for the tumbling, is a golden elixir. Zhang Ziyang knows this. He intends to drink it.
4/22
"G" F
Le Bouche hireling
Janis hireling
"Z" F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Darkyo F
Hugelina F
The party intended to re-enter the dungeon to look for Zhang Ziyang who holds the knowledge to cure the crew of plague. Entering the first room they found a leather satchel with a root and a recipe signed by ZZ. They followed the recipe, administered to three of the crew members, two of which died an agonizing death in front of them. G feeling the accusations of the rest of the crew, drank from the concotion himself to show it wasn't intentional. He lived. (he rolled the Big d30)
They pushed into the dungeon recovering ground previously explored. There was a tense moment where G miscalculated turn time and was caught in the well room's cylindrycal passage as the dungeon turned. With some scrambling, a rope was thrown to him, he walked along the bottom of the water and survived several attacks by creatures that look like giant tadpoles-- with lots of teeth.
Then a lever was surely and firmly pulled. They found their way to the Alchemists Sleeping Chamber just as the dungeon was turning a way it had never turned before. The frantic party jumped to the gimballed bed. Pita, she-of-the-ever-bad-luck failed a roll and ended up in a squirming mass of grubs. The party pulled her out. And then realized someone was in the bed!
Zhang Ziyang. He said he couldn't remember anything. Under the bed were 6 drawers which revealed 2 silver rings, a bolt of folded cloth with an inscription in Arabic, a wolf's pelt and some gold. We stopped there, with the party having a slumber party.
4/29
Mollie DP
Toral DP
Athydas MU
"G" F
Le Bouche hireling
Janis hireling
"Z" F
Pita hireling
Mika hireling
Fabrino hireling
Zhang Ziyang NPC
We started out with Toral and Mollie heading into the dungeon alone (the rest of the players were late anyway) to search for the rest of the folks, the sick crew was getting worse-- a few more days and they'd all be stranded here. Toral, who had grown a familiar with the Tumbling Dungeon's ways noticed at the first tumble that something was off. They soon found themselves faced with something new, the Component Library was open for browsing. Athydas (who joined the two above when his player showed up) decided to explore the shaft heading directly down with floating stone spheres in it. He was very aware that if the dungeon tumbled he would be in bad shape.
Eventually the party below saw the lantern light and yelled up. Ropes were rigged and the party all came up into the Component library. ZZ was consulted and the appropriate root was found. While this was happening Toral and Darkyo scouted out the central, spherical chamber to find a huge sphere of water slowly rotating in mid air. Within it were darting black shapes and a pale, teenaged body. Toral's hireling.
The party got the root and got out of Dodge. The concoction brewed and administered, the crew began to show signs of relief. Z administered some to the Knight of the Order of St Letholdus, who he seems to be trying to become friendly with. Just as the party sailed Zhang Ziyang said he was staying behind.
______________________
Some Thoughts
The session with all fighters was sort of boring, you need some magic to give players a wider range of options.
You can see how my constantly shifting player attendance can wreak havoc with any sensible narrative. But I make it dreamlike and let people join the party and leave it without making a big deal about it. When I go up a level as DM I think I'll try to implement Jeff Rients' table of Dungeon Doom to make sure partys aren't left in a dungeon at the end of a session. This dungeon would have made that a little harder of course, because finding the exit would have been a tricky.
This sucks for players too, though, Because Gail and Toral basically mapped the whole dungeon out and then, when they couldn't play, G and Z had to figure it all out again for themselves.
Giving the spell transcription costs has made a huge difference for the magic-users. They've been trying to kill seagulls to gather blood and quills, they are moving spells from scrolls to books and seem empowered in general.
Oh, I almost forgot, in that first session it was everybodies' birthday (or near it) and since it has been my tradition to give Boons to folks as gifts, three people wanted one.
"Okay, okay," I said. "Two of you can pick a hard core perk the other has to pick from the animal perks." Dice were rolled and Darkyo had to pick an animal. She chose a trained ferret. G chose the Obsidian Blade and Z chose the Iron Hammer, though I don't think he understands how, even as simple as it is, it works. Interestingly, G was speculating later whether his blade might have killed the grubs. Yes, it would have worked if he tried.
Some things my players never found out: Pita has been infested with a parasite and will start vomiting monsters soon. There were two witches. Zhang Ziyang was charmed. At the center of the dungeon, the reason for the tumbling, is a golden elixir. Zhang Ziyang knows this. He intends to drink it.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Your Biggest DMing Screw Up?
Okay, I spent a lot of time envisioning how this dungeon of mine changes as it rotates through space. There's sand shifting, there's water slopping about, and hinged brass plaques. I feel like I got this down. I remembered a list of things Zak said he included in designing his own adventures. One was, something that could throw everything off the rails if the players mess with it, forcing him to improvise.
Okay, I thought, I'll put a lever in the center of this dungeon that will change the axis of the dungeon's rotation.
First session, they pulled it and put it back in its first position. Later, the same. Last night they pulled it and left it. And I realized I hadn't thought this through. . . my hallway of four spheres has no way of keeping the stone boulders from falling and crushing the alchemist's bed below them once that hallway becomes a vertical shaft. The water will also fall out of the well room via its hallway now become a shaft under it. Ditto the sand. Arrgh, I'm just wavin' my hands like crazy now until they get out of this place: "The stone spheres are floating above you . . " Damn my hubris.
So, I'm curious what was your biggest DMing screw up was. Please. Be honest, this is a safe place . . .
Update: Thanks for the comments so far. I thought I'd add this pic to demonstrate what should have happened if I hadn't pretended it hadn't. The water is pouring out the opening, down the hallway there, and off into the rest of the dungeon:
Okay, I thought, I'll put a lever in the center of this dungeon that will change the axis of the dungeon's rotation.
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So, I'm curious what was your biggest DMing screw up was. Please. Be honest, this is a safe place . . .
Update: Thanks for the comments so far. I thought I'd add this pic to demonstrate what should have happened if I hadn't pretended it hadn't. The water is pouring out the opening, down the hallway there, and off into the rest of the dungeon:
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