D&D: Family Ties

The problem with playing D&D as an adult, as I have bemoaned before, is that you have to work around six adult schedules. The problem with playing as a YOUNG adult is that, even when you find a time that works for everyone, some people don't understand the notion of keeping a date book. Of the six people who said they could make it yesterday for D&D, only three showed up (including Maggie, me and Mac - the DM). One of the absentees had a legitimate work conflict that arose earlier in the week. The other two... needless to say, they're getting dangerously close to be being put on my List.

Still, Mac was nice enough to run a short session for us. Our interaction with Rule of Three ends with the magic ring suddenly attaching itself to Kismet's finger (uh-oh) and a gleaming thread emerging from it, which seemed to be invisible to anyone except the party. The party (Kismet the tiefling bard, Valna the half-elf barbarian, and Maggie's other character Marianna the human cleric) followed the thread to one of Sigil's infamous portals, and jumped blindly through. They found themselves in a Githzerai monastery, with the thread leading towards a large Amethyst mountain. The monks warned us about the acid creatures inhabiting the mountain, and equipped us with some ice crystals that could be used against them.

Our first encounter was against a large Ooze and two swarms of insects. Unfortunately, we did not have a controller to do burst/blast attacks - and since swarms resist all other types of damage, it was kind of a cluster. We ended up hand-waving the end of the fight, once we had destroyed the Ooze. Much more successful was our second encounter, versus a different kind of Ooze as well as a MOTHERLOVIN' DINOSAUR. I love this game.

See what you guys missed out on?!?

Epic D&D Day

Today I had two D&D games - one for my own group, one for the group Mac runs. I'm currently running a pre-gen module called The Last Breaths of Ashenport. My PCs, as members of the Silver Company, have been dispatched to Ashenport to investigate the rumors that every year around this time, travelers to Ashenport mysteriously disappear. The flavor of the module is distinctly Lovecraftian, and I thought it would be excellent for this time of year. To add to the atmosphere, I played the Spooky Symphonies Pandora station on my laptop. It was horror, and it was terrific! It was HORRIFIC! Wait... 

Visit scenic Ashenport at least once
(immediately) before you die!

In the first session of this adventure, our PCs made their way to Ashenport in the driving rain and immediately sought shelter at the  well-appointed Smooth Sailing Tavern and Inn. They find that the inn is all but full with various treasure seekers and merchants, along with their bodyguards. Everyone settles in for the night without incident. But then! In the middle of the night a strange call is heard emerging from the ocean. Many cannot resist it's song, and are compelled to walk towards the ocean (no doubt, to drown). I didn't feel like printing all the maps for this adventure, but luckily I had a large-scale town map for the PCs to use. In order to snap their friends and the other traveler at the inn out of their trance, every adventurer who was aware had to attack their allies and the NPCs. Heh, that was fun.

To make a long story short (too late) the party quickly realizes that no townspeople seem to be affected by this call. They intimidate a frightened villager into revealing that a ritual is being performed that will protect the town and preserve its prosperity. The site of the ritual is the Gleaming Dawn church - before the PCs could act of this information, another call sounded. They rushed back to the inn to help save their fellow travelers (securing promised rewards for their efforts). On their way to the church, they were ambushed by abhorrent fish-men, foul creations spat up by whatever evil lurks beneath the waters of Ashenport.

GROSS.

In today's session, the PCs finally made it to the church - well, to the base of the hill the church sits upon. I decided to throw in a modified version of this puzzle challenge (source: The Player's DM, Puzzle of the Week), just to make the trip up more interesting than a simple Athletics check. My players did well, though not everyone could understand the puzzle. I feel like puzzles and riddles can be hit or miss, but are generally well-received by my group.

Once inside the church, the party fought two tough battles and made their way through a trapped corridor. They ended up taking a lot of damage and were running out of healing surges, so tension was high (yay). They decided to take an extended rest in an easily-defensible area of the dungeon - a small study off the trapped corridor. The module implies that the ritual is happening that night, but I can't imagine them going on without a rest. I will probably just hand-wave that the ritual is still ongoing when they emerge from their rest. Or will I? Dun dun DUNNNNNNN.

Next post: Mac's game! 

Update on Family Ties (Mac's Campaign)

The last time this group met in person, we found our way to Sigil (the City of Doors) via the Feywild. If you recall, we are on a quest to rescue my character's uncle from the depths of the Abyss. Our first task was to find a porter to help us find "the Rule of Three." Our friend Tyler actually came on to voice one of the porters and help us complete the skill challenge - he decided to play the 8-year old street urchin as a fall-down drunk, to hilarious effect. Our porter provided map of Sigil telling us where to find "the Rule of Three." We rested for the night and got the help from some locals to figure out the map, which sounds like something we should just be able to do - until you realize Sigil looks like this:

Yes, it is a torus with bulidings covering the entire interior surface.
It's like a dooughnut with a dense urban filling. Yum?

And now, posted without DM permission, is the next step in our adventure!

Encounters 11.1 - Terrible Terrible DM

The other day, my friend David had this to say: "Your gaming blog is one of those things that starts out great, but then never gets updated." Or something like that. A seemingly innocent yet UTTERLY CUTTING remark, that I believe was revenge for me describing him as milquetoast. While I stand by my original assessment, I might have to upgrade him to usually milquetoast, but sometimes a total bitch. Which everyone should understand is meant as the highest of compliments. Also, the point is well taken - I haven't updated in forever, so I'm going to make a concentrated effort to blog EVERY DAY (on this blog, my TV blog, or a personal blog) for the month of November. Wish me luck!

Yesterday we started the new season of Encounters, which purports to introduce some elements of D&D Next while remaining true to D&D 4e. It's also trying to engage more experienced players by allowing more decision-making and having characters level up after each session. Additionally, we're finishing up with the Drow trilogy with War of Everlasting Darkness. For a program designed to introduce new players to the game, it's trying to do a lot. Still, largely on the strength of the endorsement of Dungeon's Master, I was willing to give this season a shot.

And then one of the regular DMs at our FLGS was trapped out of state by Frankenstorm Sandy. I was drafted to run the first session. Remembering the cluster that Encounters can sometimes be, and anticipating that I'd be running the newbie table, I decided to draft a list of rules - that I displayed prominently and handed out to each of the players. Yes, I am a control freak. You say that like it's news.

Rules of Sri's Table (Condensed)
1. No cell phones.
2. Pay attention and plan your turn.
3. Hold questions for the DM until your turn.
4. Do not interrupt the DM or another player.
5. Try not to roll your dice on the map.
6. If you are a new player, let the DM know (and you will be paired with a mentor).
7. Most importantly: have fun!

Since it was Halloween yesterday, my friend Maggie visited and brought goody bags for everyone. I think handing these rules out along with candy may have softened the sting. But as luck would have it, I ended up at a table of close friends who were all experienced players. So these rules were essentially superfluous - I saved the print-outs, though, in case I need to inflict them upon less courteous players.

We started out (as most adventures do) in a tavern. After the obligatory introductions, the PCs overheard that a phantom specter has been haunting the town. WotC actually gave them a choice - seek out further information from other townsfolk, follow the path of the phantom, or wait until nightfall and follow the phantom. My group chose to wait, and they followed the phantom into the Glimmerwood. There, they overheard a hushed conference between two orcs and a drow - the only purpose of which seemed to be to foreshadow the larger story arc. In continuing to follow the phantom, they come across a mixed group of freelance archaeologists (*cough*treasure hunters*cough*) who they ended up recruiting to follow them into the ruins the phantom seems to be inhabiting. They encountered a trap-filled dungeon, where they fought a minor imp.

There were a couple of different points along the way that combat could have happened, but the party decided not to attack the orcs or slaughter the treasure hunters. They could have defeated the imp by solving it's riddle, but the riddle was PREPOSTEROUS and by that time everyone was anxious to kill something. I applaud WotC for their attempt to give players a greater amount of choice and for trying to emphasize exploration of the world and interaction with NPCs. Those elements are some of the things that make home campaigns so much fun. However. In the Encounters setting, with a limited time frame and frankly minimal player investment, it felt kind of stilted and contrived.

It's like WotC heard that there were complaints about railroading and said, "Well, let's give them a bunch of choices... but make sure they still start and end at the sample place, OK?" It's. Still. Railroaded. But that's part of the structure of Encounters. It makes sense to do as little of the role-playing as possible - not my preference, but it's better than pretending your decisions make a difference. I can't believe I'm saying this, but if I were writing Encounters I would put in less interaction and exploration, not more. There's a time and a place, and this is just not it!

I will say that the flavor text for this session was good, especially the final scene where the characters emerge from the ruins only to find a sinister black web weaving itself over their heads. Could this be Lolth's Demon Weave, the foul construct of the Spider Queen that is slowly draining all arcane energy from the world, coming to DOOM US ALL?!? Spoilers: of course it is.

As always, for a more coherent recap check out Dungeon's Master.