Sunday's game ran from 1:00 to 6:45. We had some total newbs and a lot of time was spent on character generation. Mental note - pre-packaged equipment lists, next time! I should have pulled something off the blogosphere, but by the time I realized that, they were into it enough that I thought it best to just let them explore their options.
Jillena, my wife :) - Playing a Halfling Hero. This class draws some inspiration from Brave Halflings Halfling Adventurer and the LL Halfling. I'll post it. I don't use level limits and just couldn't bring myself to imagine a Halfling Fighting-man, who was unlimited in level. So, wanting to give the race some options, I made the Halfling Hero.
Sandra - A Human Paladin. She's never played before, except for one time in college, with a girl-friend, with neither one knowing what they were doing... (just to be clear, I'm talking about D&D.) She likes to read fantasy and has played some computer stuff.
Kevin - A Human Druid. (I made up some bs to allow the druid and paladin to adventure together. Probably unwise, but what the hell. We'll see how it goes.)
Darren - A Human MU.
Francis - A Halfling Cleric of Freyja (I wasn't going to let Halflings be clerics, but Francis really, really wanted to play a halfling and a cleric. When in doubt, I ask myself WWJRD? (What would Jeff Rients Do?) Francis has never played before, either. He's done the WoW thing and met my wife by playing Castle-age (don't know exactly what that is, but my wife is fairly sucked into it.)
Two of my players, Jillena and Sandra, are live. Francis is skyping in from Belgium. Darren and Kevin are skyping in together from Atlanta. Those latter two are planning on attending live, on occasion. Darren's my oldest and dearest friend, so he's willing to make the drive, every once in a while. Francis is certainly welcome to do the same, but a plane trip from Europe is a lot more to commit to than a 3 hr drive. :)
Aside from a 30 min. period of technical difficulties, the skype thing worked fine. It felt like playing D&D, so I'm good. My friend Lee was supposed to play, but his work commitments changed. I'd like to rustle up one more live player.
Two halflings. I'll be. No thieves. The Paladin is the only Fighter-type PC (the Halfling Hero attacks as a Cleric/Thief.) You'll notice I didn't list the PC's names. I was in such a hurry to finally get started, I forgot to write them down. Because I'm a softie, they used the old 4d6 drop the lowest, arrange to taste, method of char gen. It's been a while, since I've run a campaign, so I've got some rust to knock off!
The Campaign Begins! Welcome to The Black Mete!
I never start campaigns in a tavern. Never. I usually start with "Roll Inititative," and throw the players right into a combat situation. But, Sunday, they started in The Grinning Gryphon roadside Inn and Tavern in hex 0804.
I had them each roll 1d4. That was their starting gold, after picking their equipment. :) I also gave them a two-page player's handout, though most of the first page is taken-up with the map. This was a short intro to the milieu, which also contained some adventure hooks/opportunities.
I then informed them that they had 4 men-at-arms and 2 lackey's in their employ. The meat-shields earn 2 gp per day. The lackey's 1. Payday was five days away.
Kevin/Druid: "I say we fire them."
DM: "I wouldn't advise that."
So, they quickly took out the Player's Handout and actually read it, this time. They discussed some options. Jillena/Halfling Hero asked Bob, the Halfling proprietor of the Grinning Gryphon, if he knew of any money making opportunities. Bob mentioned he'd heard of several lumberjacks disappearing, from their camp, over the past week. The lumberjack's were pretty upset and maybe could use some help.
Darren/MU: "They're lumberjacks, though, so they're o.k." (Does anyone give out xp for the first Monty Python reference, in a campaign?)
The Lumberjack CampI had them each roll 1d4. That was their starting gold, after picking their equipment. :) I also gave them a two-page player's handout, though most of the first page is taken-up with the map. This was a short intro to the milieu, which also contained some adventure hooks/opportunities.
I then informed them that they had 4 men-at-arms and 2 lackey's in their employ. The meat-shields earn 2 gp per day. The lackey's 1. Payday was five days away.
Kevin/Druid: "I say we fire them."
DM: "I wouldn't advise that."
So, they quickly took out the Player's Handout and actually read it, this time. They discussed some options. Jillena/Halfling Hero asked Bob, the Halfling proprietor of the Grinning Gryphon, if he knew of any money making opportunities. Bob mentioned he'd heard of several lumberjacks disappearing, from their camp, over the past week. The lumberjack's were pretty upset and maybe could use some help.
Darren/MU: "They're lumberjacks, though, so they're o.k." (Does anyone give out xp for the first Monty Python reference, in a campaign?)
The LJ's weren't much help. 3 of their number had disappeared over the past week. No-one saw where they went. They just disappeared and never returned to camp. The foreman took up a collection from his crew and offered the PC's 25 gp's, to discover what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. The party said they'd see what they could do (they've been watching Burn Notice, apparently.)
The Mushroom Forest
They decided to look around a bit and head south. Into a Mushroom Forest. They ran into two Pod-men and had their first battle. They overcame the weird creatures with little difficulty.
Attack in the Night
They crossed a thin, shallow river into the next hex, leaving the Mushrooms and decided to make camp. During the first watch, a group of 8 Goblins ran across their camp (wandering monster roll.) The Goblins served Tisha, a cleric of the Toad God. The leader of the Goblin scouting party had "gotten religion," to the point that he was daring enough to try and attack the mostly sleeping party (It was getting late and I wanted one more combat encounter, for their first session.)
The Goblin's got surprise on the party and a hail of spears, tore into the camp. Alas, they all missed. Melee, insued. The MU got off his Sleep spell, catching two, along with the Halfling Cleric (the cleric was in dire straights, badly wounded and probably had his life saved, here.) The MU also took a spear in the gut, getting knocked down to -1 HP (-10 is death.)
Two of the Goblins escaped. The Druid dispatched the two sleeping ones, while the Paladin was elswhere engaged. One of the goblins got surrounded by enemies, couldn't run and somehow managed to get himself killed by friendly spear-fire. (Rolled a 1.)
A third Goblin tried to escape but was captured. The Halfling Hero found him hiding behind a tree, shivering in fear. (I showed them the goblin picture in the LL rulebook. He looks so cute!)
The Party's First Prisoner!
Horace agreed to take them to the Dungeon. That was where we ended the session. We're playing again, this coming Sunday and taking the one after that off. The plan is to play three Sundays out of every four, from about 1:00 to 6:30.