We finished The Lost Mine of Phandelver last Sunday. The guy playing our wizard will move to Melbourne next Monday, so we had to rush the last stage of the adventure, and for that we had a full 2 pm to 10 pm session.
In the words of our DM, we had to Game of Thrones (Season 8) it a little bit, and I have a feeling that we missed quite a lot of the treasure that could have been found about
Spoilers
in the actual Wave Echo Cave. Our wizard had a great idea of creating a familiar in the shape of a bat, so it could give us some hints as to what waited ahead, and our DM had broken up the large map into small cut out modules, so this helped the immersion feeling. The bat was great for this, until a group of Stirges eliminated it in the first 5 minutes in the cave.
Instead of having a map that you uncover, where you sort of work out how much area it can be left to explore of the map, adding bits of tunnel/cavern made the exploration a lot more realistic and took away a bit of metagaming. Our DM then confessed that even though it feels better, it was a nightmare to organize all the little cut outs, as we never proceeded the way he expected (typical PCs, right?).
We cleared most of the cave, and only needed one short rest. By the time we reached the temple for the final showdown, we had cleared most of the map minus the actual Forge. We had left alone the Spectator and the Magician wight after a short exchange/negotiation, to save spells for the Black Spider.
We totally fell for the doppelganger trap, thinking it was the surviving Rockseeer brother, Nundro; so the Black Spider fell on us. We survived thanks to a silence spell from our Cleric, though, killing the drow and his arachnid minions, but the doppelganger escaped. We tried to chase it, but had to give up to save Nundro, and as we made it out of the cave with the real Nundro, the fake one had convinced Halia and Sildar (I think Halia and the Black Spider gang were in cahoots) to blow up the entrance to the mine, so we could not return to explore the actual Forge (we had not eliminated the Spectator to save spells/HP for the final showdown).
Overall, it was great fun. We started the campaign in January and with an average of 2/month sessions (many of them postponed for COVID or general illness by the hosts) we managed to close it in less than a year. Now with the loss of our wizard, we will play a few one shots with other characters and a new person will join us, so everybody can have a feel of what they are like, to see if we continue with the same storyline (replacing our wizard), or we start a new campaign from scratch.
I had an afternoon/evening session with my closer friends playing a D&D one shot last Saturday (the same one I had a run with as my first DM session with my current group, albeit with some changes to accommodate lvl 1 characters).
5 players (plus a 6 year old boy that very now and again was coming along to ask questions and stare at the minis of goblins and hobgoblins) that I think had a really good time. The first third of the session was a bit tricky for them (first time roleplaying for most) but after a break for pizza the combat started and they really started to have fun killing goblins. They managed to pull through with no casualties (if close) and win the day, and I have an inkling that 4 of them might definitely be in for the long run. The three blokes and one of the wives were very expressive about it.
Note to self: even though I had session 0 with them separately, I did not assist with the spell choices. They chose poorly, and I could have assisted them more with that (specially the bard character) knowing what was coming. In a way I think it makes things more realistic, but on the other hand, it put a bit of a cog on the works for the only friend that I feel might not be very likely to repeat and was playing a druid. We will see. Now I am between two minds, if I play a campaign with them, I am torn between Acquisitions Incorporated, The Lost Mines of Phandelver, or Dragon Heist.
Phandelver is a lovely little campaign which has lots of bits and pieces that could help you move into a more sandbox campaign later if you wish. Or I used it to go into Hoard of the Dragon Queen
Just started a new D&D 5E campaign, my first RPG campaign since a year or so before the pandemic. My husband is DMing for myself and three of his coworkers in a home brew campaign. My husband and I have a decent amount of D&D experience, but the other players are all new. He had us all make two level 1 characters. First session was a sort of rules training session for our first characters with a light dungeon crawl, quick kobold fight, and a fight with an already wounded young dragon who they defeated but then they were killed by the man who hired them. Magic shenanigans ensued in an epilogue so that all our second characters, each with a personal connection to our first character, acquired some of the memories of that day and know the truth of the fight, betrayal, and deaths of our friends. Our second characters leveled up based on the absorbed knowledge and have come together to decide what to do next. My husband said his goal with this was to let the new players learn hands-on without feeling like anything they did really mattered and give all our characters an actual reason to be together and working on a common goal. He did also tell us all from the start one of our two characters would die in the first game so no surprises. Weāll see in game 2 if it worked.
The issue I have with Phandelver is that I just ran it as a playerā¦ and I feel like trying something new for myself as well. Iām sure it will be fun to see if they tackle obstacles in a different way that we did (they lack a wizard, but a bard and druid would compensate for that) but I feel like the tone of Acquisitions could click really well with them. It definitely would with meā¦
EDIT: On the Hoard of the Dragon Queen suggestion, I read somewhere that Tyranny of Dragons (I think it includes Hoard and Raise of Tiamat, so lvl 1 to high teens if not 20) is a bit railroaded and repetitive, but I have a feeling that if it has lasted this long it cannot be bad at all, and not being the most experienced DM in the world, I am not against a bit of railroading anyway. Have you played both? Just Hoard? Did it feel like that?
Unfortunately, all the games I was a player in died off (scheduling conflicts, people struggling with online play, etc), but my campaign is still going strong (our 82nd session was last night) and is now back to playing in person.
Currently the party is dealing with some hags whoāve been doing experiments in the shadowfell to give fey creatures strange powers. One of these turned out to be a clone of the elven fighter that was then turned into a hexblood - intended to eventually become a hag to replace a fallen coven member.
Along with this traumatised teenage girl, the party have recently acquired a half-elf paladin with a grudge against elven nobility (a new character played by the partner of the druid player, specifically made to mess with them because their characterās boyfriend is elven nobility) and one of these fey experiments (the cleric player trying out a new monk character). Meanwhile, the cleric has gone walkabout with the god heās (sort of) dating.
Standard D&D stuff.
Outside of that, a new board game cafe opened that has regular D&D nights (sadly on the same night as my regular campaign, so I can only go there every other week), so Iāve run a couple of one-shots there as well as played in a couple.
I also just made some gifts for my players based on a running joke thatās now popped up in multiple games:
It started off with my friend panicking and naming an inn āThe Cosy Beaverā in a one-shot. After this went down much as you might expect, I suggested she should have used a random name generator. I pulled out my phone and the app I used immediately suggested āThe Easy Beaverā.
Now Beaver Inns is a multiverse-spanning franchise, appearing in games that are nothing to do with either of us.
My Pirates of Drinax (PoD) Traveller game runs on happily, coming up to itās anniversary. Exploring lots of SF and Traveller 'tropes in a mix of sandbox, emergent and plotted adventures. Like most PoD campaigns it rapidly developed itās own stories and arcs whilst still using 80% of the published materials and plotlines. They just donāt assists always follow the table of contents. It has reminded me how simple Traveller is at its core. Plus how the rare combats are similar to 5e, making this a very simple switch for most.
Space combat needs an intermediate level tho. We have hacked out a version that can cope with multiple 100-1200dt ships at multiple ranges. Might put it out there for others one day.
Weāve done two and a half sessions of Dune. There has been a lot of head scratching and frustration as weāve crashed into things that are NOT well explained in the rulebook, but with the help of the Tavern Forum and RPG stack exchange, weāve figured them out now.
The things we bounced off were:
Movement. The book doesnāt make clear and the GM Screen outright lies about the fact there are 3 options for movement, not just the two āspecialā ones: (a) move without rolling dice, (b) move subtly at difficulty 2, (c) move boldly at difficulty 2,
Types of character. Every other RPG known to man has 2 types: PCs and NPCs. Dune has three: (1) PCs made and run by the players; (2) NPCs made & run by the GM, and (3) supporting characters, made by the players and sometimes run by them, but never run by the GM. (It does not help that the NPCs in the scenario in the core rules are mislabelled as āsupporting charactersā).
Asset creation. General consensus is that if there is no Momentum to spend and/or it seems a bit mean to make the players rolls dice to ācreateā an asset that already exists narratively in play (such as a weapon dropped by a bad guy), then the GM should pretend they are running Cortex or Fate and just fling a free asset onto the table.
So the players are enjoying the setting. Itās just been a bit slow because of getting our heads round the system. I think weāve grokked combat (skirmish conflict now). Weāre trying out social conflict (intrigue conflict) this week.
And last night I DMād a one-shot at our local board game cafe based on Taskmaster, which went down very well. I think I might come up with some more tasks so I have a good variety to pick from if I want to run it more times for different groups.
The framing device was that it was entertainment for a storm giantās birthday (with Alex Horneās role taken by a goliath, so ālittleā in comparison, despite being 8ā tall). The final task was to ādefeatā the giant - a CR16 creature against a group of level 3 characters. They ended up beating him at dice.
Taskmaster is a great basis for a one shot. Back in the pendragon campaign we had a tournament of tests and only half way through did I realise what was happening.
Itās an interesting puzzle/encounter design challenge as well, as a lot of Taskmaster tasks donāt work in D&D. Mostly because thereās no satisfying way to simulate timed tasks or everyone doing tasks separately without knowledge of each other.
Also, I didnāt want a bunch of tasks that were just āroll an [X] ability checkā or āfight these creaturesā.
It was lots of simple tasks. āThe Hunting Prizeā where they were presented with a rabbit in the woodsā¦ It seemed a bit rubbish so I went deer hunting. I think if you present obvious solutions and let people think outside the box.
Clearly youāve not played Ars Magica, which loves ātroupe styleā play with multiple levels of characters and people switching between characters and who is GM. Iām intrigued by Dune having āsupporting charactersā for player but not GM use.
On Wednesday we are literally one session left from the conclusion of Curse of Strahd 5e D&D. Well maybe two. We are ready to lay the smackdown on Strahd. However our GM keeps stallingā¦ like he canāt see his favourite NPC go downā¦ or see us get wiped out.
Pretty much, except in specific circumstances. A PC can give them some orders (so they sort of get an action), or can use them to get a bonus die (āassistanceā) or use them to lower the difficulty of a roll (if their job description ātraitā is relevant). Otherwise, there is a rule that says if they arenāt being run by a player, then they can only ever succeed at a Difficulty 0 task. To put that in context, the average difficulty is 1, and the interesting Move variants are Difficulty 2.
Oh and a PC can sacrifice them to avoid being defeated or avoid having a lasting complication. So if you lose a fight and get your arm chopped off, you can spend some Momentum and say it happened to the supporting character instead.
Itās a game with a Discord channel. And another secret channel from which the GM is blocked (but can see the title of); āThe Plot Against Strahdā
