For anyone who hasn't been playing D&D Encounters this season, it's been pretty brutal. My group of mostly experienced players has been hanging on - although we're not always great about synergizing. The mostly-newbie table at our game shop, however, has experienced TPK (Total Party Kill) twice already. Yikes.
Session 4: We descend deeper into the tower, which is clearly going to lead us into the Underdark. I mean... clearly. We came to a room divided lengthwise - on one side, a set of iron doors and the only way ahead. On the other, the lever to operate said door. Of course, villains (globins and drow warriors) were lurking on both sides of the room. To avoid being pinned between the two groups of bad guys, we decided to bend one of the central tenets of D&D: "Don't split the party." Three of us went for the lever, while the rest of the party headed fro the door. My svirfneblin warpriest, Tassen, used all of his ability to heal to keep one of the tanks alive - naturally, the other tank went down for the count. The only reason we survived was that the D&D gods saw fit to boost our party with a couple of NPC allies - the heir to the throne and her bodyguard, magically teleported to us by the benevolent (?) wizard we're working with. Sadly, they were teleported out again between this combat and the next. Happily, several of us leveled up after this session, so we were ever-so-slightly more badass.
Session 5: Once again, we faced a weridly-shaped map this session - three interconnected corridors formed a square with a slightly larger area. In that area, a drow spellcaster (one of the bosses, no doubt) took pot-shots at us from behind a porticullis before eventually running away. The battle lasted three long rounds, and we essentially bottlenecked in one section of the map. I also decided that I am completely fed up with the Cloud of Darkness power that these drow a-holes keep dropping on us. This may be because I incautiously charged into the fray and ended up, along with our goblin spellcaster, taking up the majority of damage for the party. Eventually one of our tanks managed to King's Castle to get me out of harms way (and take my place). Still, my character was down to zero hit points by the end of the encounter - luckily, it was FINALLY time for an extended rest. In going forward, I think I need to realize that I am NOT playing a defender - and that just because I'm a melee character doesn't mean I have to rush into the middle of the fray.
Why is Encoutners so tough this season? I think Wizards is recognizing that while these session are aimed at bringing new players in, Encounters is really becoming a venue for experienced players to get their game on. At the same time, I hope this isn't discouraging new players from joining in. Maybe there could be two levels of difficulty, and players get to decide while they want to play...? Just spitballing, here.
For much more comprehensive recaps, check out this blog: http://dungeonsmaster.com/dd-encounters/.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
"Ill Doctrine" video re: sexist gamer dudes
Thanks to my friend Sarah F. for sharing this on Facebook. "If you need to show off your debating skills and try to make fetch happen, there's plenty of other times for that." Love it!
My personal experience with the "sandwich joke" - I enjoy cooking and baking, and I often find it useful to feed my players. They have less time to complain when their faces are full of cupcakes. Once, I was hosting and a male "friend" of mine was the only one who hadn't had dinner. Being the kind soul that I am, I offered to make him something. While I thew together some peanut butter and jelly, he stood besides me chuckling. When I asked him what was so funny, he said, "You're in the kitchen. Making me a sandwich." I didn't get it at first, but when I figured out that he found this funny because I was a WOMAN... well, it hurt. But I didn't say anything. What I should've said was, "Oh- so you wanted spit in this?"
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Guess Who's Coming to the Session?
If anyone has been reading this blog, s/he may be thinking... "Hey, aren't you supposed to be a DM? When are you actually going to run a game?" Not to fret, imaginary reader. Today's post is about my D&D home campaign - written and run by yours truly.
The adventure is set in the county of Corbais, where the usual monsters of the wilderness have been making uncharacteristic attacks on towns and villages. Our heroes have defended the innocent townsfolk valiantly, and have found several strange primal magic totems attached to various monsters. They confronted the local swamp witch about this, but she fought them off and escaped. Meanwhile, an old adventurer named Reis Uleka has decided to come out of retirement to organize a fighting force, the Silver Company. In light of their dedicated service to the community, Uleka has just agreed to allow our heroes to join Silver Company. They have been assigned their first mission, to investigate some strange dealings in the village of Vervaine.
For this session, we were at least than full strength - only two out of my regular five players could attend. The only two left were our cleric, played by Maggie, and our rouge, played by our friend Carly. However, Maggie also plays a barbarian that makes guests appearances in this adventure. So I decided that, before the party set off for Vervaine, that the barbarian and the rouge would participate in a local competition between strikers called The Blood Thirst Tournament. Teams of two would go head-to-head in illusory arenas... where the hazards are all too real.
A few days before we were due to play, Carly asked if her friends Katia and Alex could come and watch our game. She mentioned that they might be interested in joining us in the future. Since I'm always on the look-out for fresh meat I said, "Great, the more the merrier!" I planned to field some basic questions about how the D&D works and maybe get them interested enough to roll up a character. What I actually got were two experienced 4e players who expected that I would have characters for them to play.
Which, I did not. Neither did I have an adventure for four PCs prepared. What's a DM to do? I could have tried to throw something together on the fly, but that would have taken a big chunk out of our limited playing time. I could have asked them to simply spectate, but I couldn't imagine that would be fun for people who expected to play. So, I tried a compromise - I asked our guests to play each of the opposing teams in the tournament.
There were definite pros and cons to playing the bad guys in this scenario. The major pro is that you get to play around with a whole new set of powers each match-up. The major con is that the game is heavily weighted towards the other team. I tried to find role-playing reasons to even the playing field, but that got me accused of playing favorites. But that's part of DMing - trying to make everyone happy, and often failing.
In the end the heroes prevailed (of course) and we all had a pretty good time. Katia and Alex are planning to join us for a few sessions, which means we didn't scare them off entirely. Next time we have visitors, though, I'm going to email them myself to find out if they (a) want to actually play and (b) can bring their own characters. As Simon said to Jayne, "'Cause I don't see this working any other way."
--
Quote of the Week: "Also, I can kill you with my brain." - River Tam
The adventure is set in the county of Corbais, where the usual monsters of the wilderness have been making uncharacteristic attacks on towns and villages. Our heroes have defended the innocent townsfolk valiantly, and have found several strange primal magic totems attached to various monsters. They confronted the local swamp witch about this, but she fought them off and escaped. Meanwhile, an old adventurer named Reis Uleka has decided to come out of retirement to organize a fighting force, the Silver Company. In light of their dedicated service to the community, Uleka has just agreed to allow our heroes to join Silver Company. They have been assigned their first mission, to investigate some strange dealings in the village of Vervaine.
3.5 players may recognize Uleka as an
"iconic character" from the Crivis setting...
Or not, because honestly I stumbled upon him
while trolling this D&D wiki.
"iconic character" from the Crivis setting...
Or not, because honestly I stumbled upon him
while trolling this D&D wiki.
For this session, we were at least than full strength - only two out of my regular five players could attend. The only two left were our cleric, played by Maggie, and our rouge, played by our friend Carly. However, Maggie also plays a barbarian that makes guests appearances in this adventure. So I decided that, before the party set off for Vervaine, that the barbarian and the rouge would participate in a local competition between strikers called The Blood Thirst Tournament. Teams of two would go head-to-head in illusory arenas... where the hazards are all too real.
A few days before we were due to play, Carly asked if her friends Katia and Alex could come and watch our game. She mentioned that they might be interested in joining us in the future. Since I'm always on the look-out for fresh meat I said, "Great, the more the merrier!" I planned to field some basic questions about how the D&D works and maybe get them interested enough to roll up a character. What I actually got were two experienced 4e players who expected that I would have characters for them to play.
Which, I did not. Neither did I have an adventure for four PCs prepared. What's a DM to do? I could have tried to throw something together on the fly, but that would have taken a big chunk out of our limited playing time. I could have asked them to simply spectate, but I couldn't imagine that would be fun for people who expected to play. So, I tried a compromise - I asked our guests to play each of the opposing teams in the tournament.
There were definite pros and cons to playing the bad guys in this scenario. The major pro is that you get to play around with a whole new set of powers each match-up. The major con is that the game is heavily weighted towards the other team. I tried to find role-playing reasons to even the playing field, but that got me accused of playing favorites. But that's part of DMing - trying to make everyone happy, and often failing.
"But you let that bad guy walk through this square!"
"He's a creature made of shadows,
and he was insubstantial at the time."
and he was insubstantial at the time."
"So?"
In the end the heroes prevailed (of course) and we all had a pretty good time. Katia and Alex are planning to join us for a few sessions, which means we didn't scare them off entirely. Next time we have visitors, though, I'm going to email them myself to find out if they (a) want to actually play and (b) can bring their own characters. As Simon said to Jayne, "'Cause I don't see this working any other way."
--
Quote of the Week: "Also, I can kill you with my brain." - River Tam
Thursday, June 7, 2012
D&D Encounters
If you are interested in trying out Dungeons and Dragons, but don't have friends who play, D&D Encounters is a great way to get started. The creators of D&D have made arrangements with game shop owners all over the country to host these events - they provide the materials, and the shop owners provide the space. People volunteer to be Dungeon Masters (who run the game and play the monsters) and players can just show up at the appointed time. No experience is necessary, and the creators even provide characters to play. More experienced gamers also find D&D Encounters fun because it's a set weekly game that, conversely, will not fall apart if you don't show up. You can make a lot of new friends and recruit them for your home games, as well.
D&D Encounters is divided into 13-15 week "seasons," and in each weekly session you complete one battle or "encounter." I realize that the name makes Encounters sound vaguely like a service where lonely gamers can meet a friendly yet discreet short-term companion. Trust me, it's not. At least, not that I've noticed. The downside of Encounters (besides the lack of prostitutes) is the same with any published adventure - player decisions/choices often have little impact on how the story develops. In other words, all roads lead to the top of the mountain... or into the dragon's den. For players who love combat, though, this is great - if your DM allows it, you can cut the role-playing almost entirely and get right to the "hack and slash."
This session we played the third encounter of the season, entitled "Web of the Spider Queen." The Spider Queen, or Lolth, is the goddess of a race of evil elves known as the drow who live in the Underdark, a vast network of subterranean caves and tunnels. Our mission, since we've chosen to accept it, is to find a magical amulet to prevent the drow from overrunning the nearby town. I'm playing a healer this season - while healers don't hit as often or do as much damage, they are an essential party member. At least, that's what I told myself to justify the fact that I had to use most of my healing on myself. Still, my party survived in fairly good shape, which is all that matters... right?
You can read more about D&D Encounters on the official website. Next week: Will Sri's character survive another session? Stay tuned!
D&D Encounters is divided into 13-15 week "seasons," and in each weekly session you complete one battle or "encounter." I realize that the name makes Encounters sound vaguely like a service where lonely gamers can meet a friendly yet discreet short-term companion. Trust me, it's not. At least, not that I've noticed. The downside of Encounters (besides the lack of prostitutes) is the same with any published adventure - player decisions/choices often have little impact on how the story develops. In other words, all roads lead to the top of the mountain... or into the dragon's den. For players who love combat, though, this is great - if your DM allows it, you can cut the role-playing almost entirely and get right to the "hack and slash."
This session we played the third encounter of the season, entitled "Web of the Spider Queen." The Spider Queen, or Lolth, is the goddess of a race of evil elves known as the drow who live in the Underdark, a vast network of subterranean caves and tunnels. Our mission, since we've chosen to accept it, is to find a magical amulet to prevent the drow from overrunning the nearby town. I'm playing a healer this season - while healers don't hit as often or do as much damage, they are an essential party member. At least, that's what I told myself to justify the fact that I had to use most of my healing on myself. Still, my party survived in fairly good shape, which is all that matters... right?
You can read more about D&D Encounters on the official website. Next week: Will Sri's character survive another session? Stay tuned!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Serenity RPG
This afternoon I met up with my Serenity RPG group at our downtown game shop, Labyrinth. I love this place - it has a wide range of games and puzzles, a friendly and knowledgeable staff, and an amazing location (right off the Eastern Market metro). The owner is a lovely woman named Kathleen, and she always creates a welcoming atmosphere. This is in contrast to the game shop closest to me (which shall remain nameless) where the employees seem to have adopted a strategy of "if we ignore the customers, maybe they'll go away."
Anyway, back to the gaming! Serenity is primarily a shared storytelling RPG - unlike D&D, the primary mode of conflict resolution is not combat, but the use of particular characters skills (lying, scheming, etc). In other words, if you like the "hack and slash" aspect of RPGs, this is not the game for you. However, if you love being creative in non-combat situations and want your decisions to shape the plot, this game was made for you. Another big difference is that you're not going to win every time - in fact, they expect you to come out on the losing side of some interactions, as that will make your eventual triumph all the sweeter.
Or, you know, vice versa.
In our current adventure, we are a rag-tag crew on a mid-bulk transport called Phoenix II. I'm playing the captain of the ship - a foul-tempered and sometimes violent woman named Dao-ming Tu. She's more of a 'doer' than a 'thinker,' so she depends on Wire, a smooth-talking socialite, to handle sensitive negotiations. The rest of the crew is comprised of James - a slightly deranged pilot who's obsessed with his pet otter - and Tai Li - a callous medic/mechanic who can use her acupuncture needles to heal or to hurt. Right now we're just picking up odd jobs and trying to stay aloft. Once we've made more of a reputation for ourselves, however, bigger opportunities are bound to present themselves.
Serenity works really well when have a GM (game master) who can make stuff up on the fly to fit with player decisions. In many systems, GMs are constrained by the premise that combat is the best/only option for advancing the plot. With Serenity, the options for advancement are limited only by the player's imaginations - and the GM's ability to adapt the story line accordingly. Mac is great at this - and by his own admission, some of the greatest moments have come from when we go "off script." These tangents often lead to uproarious laughter, and to people coming up to our table to see what all the fuss is about.
And that's another great thing about local game shops like Labyrinth - on any given day, you can wander in and spectate what people are playing. You can discover new games this way, and nerds are always happy to chat about their favorite systems. Who knows, they might even invite you to pull up a chair!
Your Friendly Neighborhood Labyrinth
Anyway, back to the gaming! Serenity is primarily a shared storytelling RPG - unlike D&D, the primary mode of conflict resolution is not combat, but the use of particular characters skills (lying, scheming, etc). In other words, if you like the "hack and slash" aspect of RPGs, this is not the game for you. However, if you love being creative in non-combat situations and want your decisions to shape the plot, this game was made for you. Another big difference is that you're not going to win every time - in fact, they expect you to come out on the losing side of some interactions, as that will make your eventual triumph all the sweeter.
Or, you know, vice versa.
In our current adventure, we are a rag-tag crew on a mid-bulk transport called Phoenix II. I'm playing the captain of the ship - a foul-tempered and sometimes violent woman named Dao-ming Tu. She's more of a 'doer' than a 'thinker,' so she depends on Wire, a smooth-talking socialite, to handle sensitive negotiations. The rest of the crew is comprised of James - a slightly deranged pilot who's obsessed with his pet otter - and Tai Li - a callous medic/mechanic who can use her acupuncture needles to heal or to hurt. Right now we're just picking up odd jobs and trying to stay aloft. Once we've made more of a reputation for ourselves, however, bigger opportunities are bound to present themselves.
Serenity works really well when have a GM (game master) who can make stuff up on the fly to fit with player decisions. In many systems, GMs are constrained by the premise that combat is the best/only option for advancing the plot. With Serenity, the options for advancement are limited only by the player's imaginations - and the GM's ability to adapt the story line accordingly. Mac is great at this - and by his own admission, some of the greatest moments have come from when we go "off script." These tangents often lead to uproarious laughter, and to people coming up to our table to see what all the fuss is about.
And that's another great thing about local game shops like Labyrinth - on any given day, you can wander in and spectate what people are playing. You can discover new games this way, and nerds are always happy to chat about their favorite systems. Who knows, they might even invite you to pull up a chair!
Friday, June 1, 2012
My Gaming History
Back in 2008, my BFF Maggie decided that she wanted to start a D&D 4E game amongst our friends, most of whom had no experience with tabletop RPGs. My only experience had been
dabbling in AD&D with my brother and his friends, back in high
school. But somehow, I ended up running the game. We muddled along for a while, but I could tell that there was a lot I was missing.
So, I decided to play with a group of more experienced players to get a better feel for the game. I got together with a bunch of strangers who wanted to start a regular D&D 4E campaign. We connected through meetup.com, and honestly I didn't know what to expect. Luckily, I met some really cool people - including Mac, who is now my best gamer friend (BGF?). Unluckily, that group has experienced a lot of DM and player attrition - currently, Mac and I trade off DM duties and Maggie is our only other regular.
On top of running these two games, I play D&D Encounters and the Serenity RPG, and am currently working on writing my next murder mystery party game. I'm not much of a console, computer, card, board, or social media gamer, but I have a few highly addictive favorites. And Mac is trying to convince me to try LARP for the first time at Otakon this year... In other words - so much gaming, so little time!
Don't be fooled by my relatable back story, however - I have an ulterior motive. Tabletop RPGs have historically been the domain of men/boys, but that is changing. More and more women are realizing that these are social, interactive, and above all fun games. I just wish I had known when I was a girl, so I could've started sooner. But! If I write this blog, maybe I can clue in some other little girl to the wonders of D&D, or Serenity, or some other RPG. At least, I can dream.
So, welcome to "La Femme DM." Enjoy!
--
Quote of the Week: "It's too late. You've awakened the Gazebo."
So, I decided to play with a group of more experienced players to get a better feel for the game. I got together with a bunch of strangers who wanted to start a regular D&D 4E campaign. We connected through meetup.com, and honestly I didn't know what to expect. Luckily, I met some really cool people - including Mac, who is now my best gamer friend (BGF?). Unluckily, that group has experienced a lot of DM and player attrition - currently, Mac and I trade off DM duties and Maggie is our only other regular.
On top of running these two games, I play D&D Encounters and the Serenity RPG, and am currently working on writing my next murder mystery party game. I'm not much of a console, computer, card, board, or social media gamer, but I have a few highly addictive favorites. And Mac is trying to convince me to try LARP for the first time at Otakon this year... In other words - so much gaming, so little time!
Don't be fooled by my relatable back story, however - I have an ulterior motive. Tabletop RPGs have historically been the domain of men/boys, but that is changing. More and more women are realizing that these are social, interactive, and above all fun games. I just wish I had known when I was a girl, so I could've started sooner. But! If I write this blog, maybe I can clue in some other little girl to the wonders of D&D, or Serenity, or some other RPG. At least, I can dream.
So, welcome to "La Femme DM." Enjoy!
--
Quote of the Week: "It's too late. You've awakened the Gazebo."
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