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. 

Encounters 10.3: Curse Your Sudden Yet Inevitable Betrayal!

I hope y'all enjoyed my Twitter feed (@monkey_sri) during this brief, unscheduled hiatus. I tried to put some gaming content in there, but sadly was not 100% successful. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

In last week's session of Encounters, we caught up with the treacherous drow priestess who had turned against her own party and left them for dead. She was accompanied by several hobgoblin toughs, and the battlefield was a narrow corridor. Being the only defender in the group, my character took quite a beating - Akneth was bloodied or unconscious half the time - but thanks to her druid ally, she made it through the Encounter in one piece. And then the fun began.

These guys? Least of our worries.

From one wall of the room we could hear a faint humming, actually composed of two melodies - one a chant to the goddess Lolth, the other some kind of wizard's mnemonic. Two adventurers had to place their hands on the wall and follow along with each melody - without confusing each other - to get through to the shrine. The DC was ridiculously low, but our rolls were ridiculously lower. Finally, our DM just let us take 20 to get through.

As soon as the wall disappeared, Akneth immediately leaped inside to complete her secret side mission - to douse the shrine with unholy water before the ritual could commence. In a shocking-to-no-one turn of events, the warlock of the party (and the only member of the House Xorlarrin) tried to stop her. Instead of being subtle or clever, however, he just fired an eldritch bolt at Akneth. Luckily, it missed. What I wanted was to have her turn around and beat his ass. But that would've extended the session and we were going out for karaoke afterwards. So she had to settle for reporting his betrayal back to her superiors.

So... interesting session. I'm still on the fence about this whole Stab Your Allies In The Back thing. Definitely not my favorite flavor of role-playing, but it does make for some interesting situations. It would be more fun, too, if I had allies who were in my house instead of having to be a faction of one.

Encounters 10.1 - Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

First combat session of Encounters, hooray! As I mentioned before, the adventurers this season had to choose a faction - House Melarn, House Xorlarrin, or the Bregan D’aerthe mercenary company. I noticed that most people wanted to be part of the mercenary company, and I wonder if that is because they think it will give them the most freedom of choice later on. I really hope that the three affiliations are balanced... mostly because I chose House Melarn!

Ostensibly,  the three factions are united in their quest to help the evil goddess Lolth take over as goddess of all magic. To do this, Lolth has commanded her followers to drain magic items of their power and turn over the raw energy to her. Recently, a shrine to primordial magic was found and a group of drow were sent to harvest it. Apparently they failed, as they have not been seen or heard from since. The leaders of our various factions have commanded us, as a group, to search out the shrine and finish the task. Nothing can go wrong with this plan!

After these general instructions were given, each leader pulled the members of their faction aside for a private chat. I don't want to say much more, but I could see how my instructions could potentially set up an interesting conflict. But, wait! I've said too much...

We proceed into the cave (Cave, cave, of course, a cave! Freakin' Underdark) and are almost immediately set upon by an Ocher Jelly and half a dozen spindly-legged minions. Being a paladin, I charged right into battle, trying to subject as many people as possible to my Defenders Aura (enemies standing next to me get punished for attacking my allies). I ended up dropping a Cloud of Darkness, and I immediately hated myself for it.

We beat the baddies in this session pretty handily, and rescued the previous drow party. They informed us that one of their priestesses had betrayed them, and that was the only reason they were defeated by Jelly & Co. Riiiiiiight. I have to say, it's fun role playing a drow character. For example, here's how the exchange between me and the rescued drow NPC went:

Me: Is his house higher or lower in rank than mine?
Mac: Lower.
Me: Akneth says, "We've come to complete the mission at which you failed, pathetic scum!"
Mac: Wait... Actually, he's higher.
Me: Okay, in that case she says, "With respect, we are here to rescue you and continue your glorious task in the service of Lolth."

Next Time: On the trail of the rogue priestess! But I will be out of town, so check out Dungeon's Master for updates.

Encounters Season 10, Session 0: Character Creation

Yesterday marked the start of the 10th season of D&D Encounters, entitled "Council of Spiders." I usually skip Session 0, aka the character creation session, because I just use Character Builder at home. However, this season is going to be really weird - as detailed below - so I thought it would be important to attend.

Races are limited to drow and drow slaves, and there is a limited selection of classes. For example, only drow can be clerics, but only non-drow can be druids.You also must choose an affiliation that will dictate some of your choices/actions going forward. The three choices are House Melarn (a house whose members rank highly among the Priestesses of Lolth), House Xorlarrin (a higher-ranking house of mages - magic being considered necessary but contemptible in drow society, the houses are essentially equal), or the Bregan D'aerthe mercenaries (predominantly male group of assassins, spies, etc).

I'm playing a drow paladin of House Melarn, named Akneth. 

Another new facet of the game is that the PCs are encouraged to play evil characters and/or betray each other. At first this seemed to run contrary to the shared storytelling experience, also known as "the whole point of D&D." However, with a good DM, I'm starting to see this as a great role-playing opportunity. How will we come together as a group? Why would we stay together? What will happen after the first betrayal? These are role-playing questions that you seldom need to address in a home campaign. My only fear is that some players, especially newbies, might take in-game backstabbing personally.

Nothing personal. NOW, DIE!

Mac, being an awesome DM, had a mini-encounter prepared for after we finished discussing our characters. Only a couple of us had created a character ahead of time, so everyone else used the pre-gens provided by WotC. They were basically the same pre-gens we've been getting every season since season one, except that they were all drow. Our two controllers went first, and because the enemies were nicely clustered they both landed EPIC area attacks. On my turn I leaped across a shallow pool and struck one of them with my broadsword - only to have the few remaining enemies turn invisible and run away... grrr. I also helped the newbie sitting next to me, and he did really well - he cornered the final bad guy, so I was able to swoop in for the killing blow. Teamwork, dreamwork!

Once again, for more detailed/coherent recaps and all the inside scoops, check out Dungeon's Master.

Encounters Recap: Session 13

Play this while reading the following post.   

We've slogged through the Underdark, fighting drow, ogres, drow, spiders, drow, goblins, oh and did I mention the drow? We've recovered to two halves of the Pendant of Ashabba and freed countless slaves. We've become stronger than ever before, all leading up to this moment - BOSS FIGHT!

I can't accurately describe the scene for this Encounters session because, due in part to legitimate personal misfortunes, our DM misplaced the map. In previous versions of the game, I gather that maps were not essential - I vaguely remember playing 2nd Edition with my brother and his friends, and we hardly used a map at all. Not so much in 4th Edition, in my experience. Still, we powered through by modifying the map from a previous encounter. Before any fighting - through a magical MacGuffin - we all got bonuses based on our role. I was a "theocrat," e.g. a cleric, so I got to heal my allies whenever I hit. Too bad I never hit with this character. *sad trombone noise*

The task in this session was two-fold: first, we had to defeat Valan Jaelre, the drow spellcaster/BBEG, a couple of driders, and several flying drow baddies. No problem, right? Luckily for someone (either the bad guys or us, not entirely sure) our modified map included a bottleneck/choke point. Our defender stood right in the middle of everything and soaked up damage, and I stood right behind him and kept him alive. I realized later that the flying - excuse me, levitating - drow were actually out of range for us (we were an overwhelmingly melee party) for most of the battle. Chalk this one up to DM inattention, and see above re: legitimate personal misfortunes.

While we were fighting off the drow, we also had to perform a ritual to repair the Pendant of Ashabba - we had to heat it, douse it in water, then bind it with the blood of our NPC ally/heir to the kingdom, Khara. Our goblin scout took his first turn to throw the pieces into a fire, then took his next turn trying to set up step three to save time. Specifically, he ran up to Khara and STABBED HER WITH HIS DAGGER. It was kind of hilarious. He then wiped off the blood with a piece of his tunic and gave both the locket and the rag to our rouge, whose speed was eight. She dashed across the board (thanks in part to the fact that the MacGuffin let her be insubstantial during her turn), dipped the pendant in water, wrapped it up in the blood-stained cloth, and hey presto! Pendant and peace were restored. The peasants rejoiced - yay. What we thought was the BBEG turned out to be nothing but a simulacrum, however, meaning that the real Valan Jaelre is still out there somewhere...

To be continued in D&D Encounters: Council of Spiders!

Is it just me, or does the drow on the right (Valan Jaelre?)
have super weird look on his face?

Encounters Recap: Session 12

I WAS LIED TO. Just kidding - my Encounters DM made a mistake, and told us last week that we only had one session left, instead of two. So THIS is my post about the penultimate Encounters for this season.

This session was kind of painful. First off, we were down two players - Mac was out of town and our friend Ian just moved out of the country (he claimed it wasn't just to get away from us). We got some help from the NPCs we were rescuing, and thank goodness because without her we would've been KILLED.

As it was, we got bottle-necked at the entrance due to the fact that (a) the passage was somewhat narrow and (b) there was a giant web-golem in our way. With Aura 2, "creatures entering or beginning their turn in the aura are slowed until the beginning of the golem's next turn." In other words, forever. None of us had teleport powers, and none of us had powers with the fire keyword (we found out later that he was Vulnerable 5 fire).

Fraaaaaaak.

I finally got away from the golem by readying an action to run as soon as our drow hunter used her attack to push him back. This of course sparked the usual debate about the differences between delaying a turn and readying an action. The main point is that delaying moves you in initiative order - you are holding your entire turn, and can come in (with any/all of your three turn actions) whenever you wish. Readying an action keeps you in the same initiative order, except you use just your standard action out of turn - and you must declare beforehand what exactly will trigger your action. There you go - clear as mud!

Did I mention this encounter also contained three Deathjump Spiders? They've got insane mobility and attacks that cause both immediate and ongoing damage. I remember the first time I used these against my PCs - I was not very well liked by the end of it. This time, one of our party members fell to zero HP, and another was close to the brink when we finally dispatched the last of the monsters. But hey, any encounter you can be revived from... Next week: we come face to face with the BBEG!

Encounters Recap: Session 11

At the penultimate session of D&D Encounters last week, our party stumbled upon a drow Torture Theater - and one of the torturers was wearing half of the Pendant of Ashaba (the magic item for which we have been questing). We entered at a very strategic point - we entered the theater at the bottom of a five-foot pit full of dead bodies. Because of this and some pretty sweet stealthiness, we managed to get in a surprise round. Which was completely necessary, since about halfway through combat one of the drow summoned four demons... eep!

Grr. Argh.

An interesting facet of this encounter was the directive to save the lives of the torture victims - half a dozen humans chained up in various placed on the board. It took a standard action and a pretty good Strength or Thievery check to get them free. This served as enough disincentive to keep most of us from even trying during most of the battle. The drow were focusing on us, anyway, so the NPCs were in no real danger. In the end, they were basically just placeholders with no real impact on how the encounter unfolded.

I once wrote an encounter for my home game with innocent bystanders in a tavern - but I asked my PCs to interact with them first, via an informal skill challenge. Once they had bonded with the NPCs, bam! Monster attack. And the baddies weren't picky about their targets (I made all the NPCs two-hit minions). I also gave my players the option of using a minor action to help the NPCs in getting themselves out (e.g. Athletics to boost them out a window - the NPC still had to roll a check). The result was chaotic, but fun. I'm not sure this would work in the Encounters setting, however. 

Next week: BOSS FIGHT! 

Encounters Recap: Session 10

When I'm writing an adventure for my D&D group, I don't plan every little detail out in advance. I have the basic story line plotted out, but I typically write each session the week before we actually play. This gives me the freedom to adapt the story line to fit my PCs choices, for (what I hope is) a more authentic "shared storytelling" type of D&D experience.

Encounters is nothing like that.

I don't say this to complain. Wizards of the Coast intended for Encounters to be modular - players should be able go into any FLGS and jump into the game, because they know exactly what's going on from the WotC website. This naturally leads to a more "railroaded" experience - no matter what you do, the same battle will ensue and the same outcome will be achieved (barring, I supposed, TPK).

All aboard! Next stop... DOOOOOOOOM!
(In unrelated news, isn't this a cool picture?
It's based on the Eberron setting - aka Steampunk D&D.)

However (there's always a however). If the party's decisions are going to be railroaded, the writers of Encounters need to realize that non-combat situations rapidly start to lose their appeal. For example, this week we were (apparently) tracking down our two NPC allies who had been captured by the drow. There was an obvious trail of blood. Our DM guided us to use skill checks to "find the NPC." Spoiler alert - he's at the end of this trail of blood. The other NPC will be were there are the most bad guys. It's Encounters, not rocket science.

After we find the NPC and he gives us the obvious exposition, we proceed to the area most heavily populated with drow. By this time, we are pretty sick of skill checks and are ready to jump into battle. But wait! Cries the DM. Don't you want to start by setting traps for the drow? Uh...no. Or, yes. Whatever gets us to killing things faster! So combat was delayed again, while we destabilized key parts of the cavern to... Crash down on drow skulls? Close off escape routes? Prevent them from flanking us? Honestly, I still don't know the reason we did all that.

There is a table at my FLGS that consistently finishes their Encounters module ahead of all the others, simply because their DM chooses to skip most of the non-combat bits. And why shouldn't he? The only good thing about a railroad is that it gets you to where you want to go as quickly as possible.

Encounters Recap: Session 9

Or: Grumpy Healer is Grumpy.

In last night's session, my party was both clever and lucky - in other words, we hardly took any damage. While this sounds awesome, as the party's healer it made me feel pretty useless. We started with a skill challenge - we had to get past a set of portcullises guarded by two ogres. We were able to bribe one with food and the other with gems, and they toddled off like good little monsters. All that remained was to deal with the drow within the fortress.

YAWN. 

There were some opportunities for relatively cool moves - our defender climbed up a battlement, defeated one enemy, then leapt across to another battlement to engage two more. Our controller skulked around the corner and sniped at everyone else. And one of our strikers turned insubstantial, sauntered up to two baddies, and dropped a killer Daily power on the asses.

And then there was me. I charged in and missed, then was bloodied, shifted, and knocked prone by a single attack. I'm a melee combatant, so there wasn't a great way to get back into the fray - I spent the next round healing myself. After that, I was immoblized by an area attack and couldn't do anything to save my comrades from ongoing damage. By the time I was finally free to actually do something, the session was over.

I know I shouldn't complain - the healer (aka leader) is a somewhat reactionary role, and if there's nothing for me to do that means my allies are doing pretty well. However, when I ask the table if anyone needs heals at the end of the session and they all turn me down, it's kind of depressing. My "main" is a leader (a tiefling bard) that I have a lot of fun roleplaying, even when he doesn't do much in a battle. However, Encounters is not the forum for role-playing (sadly).

Coming soon: Exclusive details about my main, Kismet. It will make me feel better.

Encounters Recap: Session 8

This session of Encounters finds our heroes descending deeper into the Underdark, and once again the game was played on an unusual map. Apparently, the denizens of these caverns (in this case, drow and their goblin slaves) had hollowed out a stalactite and turned it into a extremely defensible stronghold. It was an interesting visual, but it took several explanations by our DM for everyone to get what was going on - a picture of the structure itself might've been helpful.

I imagined something like this. The description also mentioned

that there were rows of windows glowing with an unholy red light. 

Spooky!

The map was divided into three parts, representing the three internal levels of the stronghold - the large top floor where we entered (the top of the stalactite), the smaller middle floor where the end of the encounter played out, and a tiny lower floor that lead to the exit. Below the stalactite, a giant web acted as a safety net... just kidding! Anyone who fell off was going to get chomped by an enormous spider. And since it's D&D, the only paths between the levels were on the outside. Drow engineering at it's finest.

My table ended up staying waaaaaaaaaaay past the usual time, for a couple of reasons. First of all, we had two newbie players - like, "played once in my life" newbies. Secondly, the DM wanted us to help them level up their pre-gen characters. It was a nice intention, but in the end I think it just made things more confusing. The biggest reason it took so long, and this is an unfortunate possibility in D&D, is that we were all rolling complete crap.

Speaking as a DM, it's hard to know what to do when your players - or even worse, just one of your players - is consistently getting terrible dice rolls. There are some mechanical "fixes," like Heroic Effort (which lets you add 4 to your attack) and Elven Accuracy (which lets you re-roll a terrible result), but not everyone has them and they're only good for one use per encounter. In my home campaigns, I've instituted the Nightly Re-Roll - anyone can re-roll once per night. On one memorable occasion, they were doing so poorly that I allowed them one re-roll per encounter. If a player is really close to hitting, I might have them roll and Athletics or Acrobatics check as a minor action to "help guide their attack."

Usually, however, I try to do things "behind the screen." You don't want to seem like you're being too easy on your players, so as not to cheapen their victory. Sometimes I'll forget to use a monster's regeneration power, or I'll neglect to recharge their most badass attack. That's why I hate players who try to sneak in a re-roll or add bonuses they shouldn't have - there's no need to cheat! Mama's got this.

Encounters Recap: Sessions 6 and 7

I skip one lousy session of Encounters, and I find out later that they did two encounters to make up for missing the holiday. Boo! Luckily, my BGF Mac was in attendance - here's his recap!

--

As previously mentioned, one of the central tenets of the game is "don't split the party". Wizards apparently said "blow that for a game of soldier" for this encounter. Everyone in the party is forcibly separated, and each is faced with an individual challenge. Pro: it's something not a lot of players have seen before. Con: there's a reason we haven't seen its like before.

What ended up happening was, each person got five or ten minutes to solve their own puzzle. Since it required DM interaction and there's only one, that meant the other five people sitting around the table got to sit there and watch someone else roleplay with no ability to interact. To top it all off, several of the challenges were doubled, so in the interest of "fairness" Ozzy, for example, who was in the same type of challenge as Liz, had to walk away and not listen as she solved her challenge so he wouldn't learn the trick. My character, who is multi-talented but has NO athletic ability, was required to climb up and down ropes repeatedly.

The next session was pretty straightforward. The group as a whole was a little pressed for time, and it was an exercise in how to quickly get through the action. Most people handled it fairly well. The group of new players sitting next to us TPK'd. AGAIN. I think this brings the total to 3 TPKs out of 7 sessions, only six of which were even combat.

Encounters Recap: Sessions 4 and 5

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/.

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!

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!

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Quote of the Week: "It's too late. You've awakened the Gazebo."