My Campaign - Session 2

I'm a little late on this one. I was getting ready to log in and do a quick post on my thoughts about evil player characters and evil campaigns since my curiosity has drawn me to research them lately and realized I never posted a session 2 update. I will try to keep the story portion of this one short and get to the challenges/lessons portion.

After receiving their trial mission, the heroes set out north to their first stop where they would rest before heading off to their main objective. Arriving in town they did some (not so quick) weapons shopping much to the chagrin of a couple other players who thought it was dragging on (I found this out later). They then met up with the rest of the party who had already made their way to the local inn/tavern and found it unusually crowded and filled with families. This was the set up for the side quest for this session. It was also a fairly important one for them to gain weapon upgrades. (I know it's early but the weapons they receive will scale over time - I'll save that for another post). It also has a couple plot seeds that will weave in and out of the main arc that I will hopefully be able to use later.

The PCs get into some role play with the locals and innkeeper and find out some children had been kidnapped earlier in the day. The bard tries performing and fails to engage the crowd. At this point I have a precocious young boy from the village engage one of the heroes. He mentions that his father is also a hero, "has a sword just like that but his is bigger". "He's out on an important mission" etc. This opens up some RP with the young boy's mother and surprisingly, the teams fighter who I didn't expect to RP much jumps right in and approaches the mother. He and the cleric learn that her husband worked for the guild they are pledging and has been gone too long. Other members of the party that were at the bar pick up on 2 shady characters that were casing the place. One leaves and the other tries to take the boy. They thwart the abduction, defeat the reinforcements that were just outside the tavern. They find a note with children's descriptions including that of the boy mentioned and interrogate the original kidnapper who they had previously knocked out.

Using the captured bandit, they track down the operation and missing children to a location well outside of town and gain entrance to an underground temple by solving a fairly simple puzzle. They fight the remaining bad guys, examine the altar that is covered with blood presumably from the missing children. They managed, with some good rolls, to stabilize both missing kids. They find evidence of a hidden door behind the altar. Upon further investigation the find the following text: "Only those with the blood of heroes shall enter" written in several languages. Stepping up to the altar, it magically clears the blood off, they each cut themselves, the altar glows and the door opens.

That's where we ended the session. Of course the above is just a summary so if it seemed rushed, you're right. Maybe I'll get better at writing those.

What challenges did I have this week?

There were less than week one that's for sure but there were a couple things that I forgot to plan out.

I forgot to set loot for the bad guys to be carrying.

I didn't even consider them having to fight outside the inn. This was not bad since I had printed some 11x17" sized grids that I could use in a pinch

I learned that with 6 players, my binder clip minis were too big for my grids and made things way more crowded than they needed to be. I bought a bunch of these to remedy that: http://spielpro.com/plastic-card-stand-rectangle-19mm-x-17mm/ I still only have PCs printed out. I may be able to do some of the bad guys for next time.

Everything is still taking way longer than I expect it to. It's definitely going to take some time for me to get a feel for how long encounters will take.

What did I feel like I improved on from the last session? (a continuation from session one notes)

• I definitely slowed myself down. This let me settle in more and actually take some notes. I don't think I missed anything I wanted to get across like I did in S1. All it took was a slight pause, even just one breath or a sip of a drink.
• My prep notes were better. I still may go to more of a bullet list of highlights and only expand when I really feel it's necessary.
• I backed off on voices this week. I still did a couple but hell, I'm no Matt Mercer and there's no sense in me trying to be right out of the gate. BUT I will continue with it in the hopes that I will be the most ridiculous person at the table so my players will be able to relax and go as far with their RP as they want and hopefully not be embarrassed. Plus I'm starting to see some fun in it tbh.
• I was able to relax more with less drinking so that's good.

So how did it go overall?

I got this message on the campaign's FB page...

This made me happy for a couple reasons. The hatred of goblins came to light after they FAILED to catch 2 on a random encounter that would have tied back to session one so it made for a good RP moment. Most importantly you can probably guess by reading that the things the OP brings up had absolutely nothing to do with me. To me that means they are engaged and remembering their place in my world not just sitting back and being blabbed at by yours truly.

Well, it seems I've managed to ramble on again :) Thanks for reading and as always...

Happy Gaming!
-The New Druid

My Campaign Notes: Session 1

subtitle: What went right, what went wrong and what did I learn

After many months (since the spring) of planning and thinking I finally launched my homebrew campaign. I should say we launched it. Since I'm new to DMing, my initial plan was to have about 4-5 players. I had four committed and one of my friends who DMs the game I'm a PC in had recently introduced his girlfriend to D&D and she took to it right away and wanted to jump in. I'm also good friends with her and was more than happy to add her to the group putting us at 5. Closing in on our start date, another friend from our other game became interested as well. I was a little nervous about trying to run for 6 but I figured he is another good player with a good table presence, the rest of the group approved, so sure lets give it a shot. I'm hoping that with 6 we can still have good sessions when all can't make it.

About my campaign - I decided to base the start of the campaign with the heroes getting recruited by a guild. This was in hopes that it will give me the ability to deliver plot hooks easier at the beginning, give them a reason to be adventuring together (something that felt awkward and forced in our other game), and to make it easier to handle missing players and possible drop-ins down the road if the story allows. One thing I am concerned about is this making the game to railroady so I will do my best to add side quests while making the main quests they receive from guild long enough to allow those side quests. Hopefully this will allow the 2 brand new players and the 2 that have been playing less than a year (about 5 sessions) to find their groove with their characters before I loosen up the game.

If you want to see the campaign outline I sent my players, you can see it on my "Getting Close" post.

To the session itself. We had a limited window to play about 3.5 hours

One of my players showed up with his character sheet hardly filled out. Two others had not picked their spells. Since we are all friends, I let them roll and build their characters on their own since there had been quite a bit of discussion via FB and email to handle a lot of the session 0 stuff. That being said, Next game I run I will have a full session 0 then maybe a quick seen to kick things off.

Here was my plan... (you will probably sense some of the issues with this as you read)

My plan was to have the heroes arrive at the guild's stronghold. While their documentation is being checked, an assault would be launched on the guild. The main gate shut, they would be left outside with goblins charging and archers firing on them and the guild. I wanted this to play like a large scale battle right out of the start with several waves of goblins, guild archers and mages from the walls and a few guild units all fighting at once even if only as added narrative. I wanted it to feel like a scramble. The plan was to have one wave get to the heroes with them and guild archers taking on the first two groups then evaluate if the whole battle would go nuts. I'm glad I left myself that out since the first two rounds took quite a bit of time. I introduced another wave of goblins and there were still 2 archers left. The druid did a good job slowing their advancement with entangle so I introduced one more wave and 2 bugbears. I had no intention of this smaller wave reaching the group. I introduced one guild party from the side of the battlefield (to set up a potential secret entrance/exit later) to deal with them and let the bugbears slip through to the heroes. As the bugbears approached, I had someone (who they would learn was the guild leader) have the archers hold fire so they could the new heroes/recruits would have a chance to prove themselves. They dealt with them fairly easy but the bbs were enough to give them a startle.

As that battle was playing out, I realized my plans were very overambitious and decided to scale it back and let them get into the mechanics of the game and get comfortable around the table. I may very well revisit the idea of a massive scale battle when we all (including me) get better. It was definitely a time for me to step back and not overplay the scene.

Some of the roleplay at the end of the scene went well. they met 3 of the 5 or 6 main players that they will deal with in the guild.

During this segment of the game is where I found myself the most challenged. My goal is to try to do as many voices as possible. This is kind of uncomfortable for me but it's something I definitely want to continue. It will be difficult for to give it the proper time and not give up on it. I also have to REALLY slow down when it comes to this stuff so I can follow my outlines better and make sure I don't miss details and do the right voices for the right people. Once or twice I ran one right into the other.

The last bit I had planned was their actual trial mission that will gain them entry into the guild. I was trying to move the story along but realized if I did I would just run them over so I again, backed off, let them roleplay a little longer. They got up to some shenanigans, had some laughs and got their first assignment.

I find it funny how some players are already getting super cautious. Once they had their assignment, they asked for some info on how to get there. Once of the NPCs recommended the main road north to a town where they can rest then northwest to their main destination. I have a side quest set up for that town that will give them a dilemma but big rewards. While deciding to either go that route or go off road straight to the objective northwest and camp on the way one of them actually said town 1 "could be a trap". I hadn't even considered that they'd be suspicious of the guild right away.

Overall I feel like the session went well. Everyone seemed to have fun. My DM from the other game gave me a good note the next day saying he had fun and the 6th member posted to our facebook group that it was a great first session!

A summary of things that I will look to improve for next session:

• Slow down! I think because of nerves I was moving a little fast and skimmed over and even passed some info. Not a big deal though, it can always be reintroduced when appropriate.
• Better prep notes. I'll be trying more outlined, spaced notes (to allow me to make notes in game. Maybe even a basic code to help me keep things in order.
• Get better at voices.
• Relax

That's about it for now. I'll try to keep doing these and let you know what fixes work and which ones didn't.

Thanks for reading and as always...

Happy Gaming!
-The New Druid

My Players Creating Their Characters

The funniest moment so far and one of the things that amazes me about D&D came from one of my new players. In a text message she wrote: "My person just took a turn in her personally I didn't see coming." This is from the person creating her!

Ok, on with the post:

As you may know, if you've read any of my other posts or seen a tweet or two, my campaign launch is getting close. As a relatively inexperienced player and new DM, I am not used to the character development side of the process except for the fact that I was just involved with it for the fist time as a PC this past Fall. I had no idea what I was doing then so I went back story concept first (I didn't even have a PHB yet!) and then looked at how I could possible pull that off with what was in the PHB. I found a couple options that with the help of my DM I could have pulled off. When I spoke to him, he was supportive and offered some hints but I ultimately went with a 3rd idea that I built from the PHB-out just because I thought it would be cool to be able to wildshape. So far I'm really enjoying that.

What does all that have to do with the title of this article? Now that I'm seeing it from the other side, it has been a very interesting process. There are 2 main factions that are approaching it in completely opposite ways.

The newer players... They are going on more of a whim. The Barbarian from the game I PC in who started the same time as me has decided to play a Bard. This would have really surprised me based on his general personality except for the fact that I see him wanting to do more than his Barbarian allows him to do sometimes (And he's pretty amused by Scanlan on Critical Role). His friend who is brand new went fighter to keep things free and easy. I have a feeling he will be the "loose cannon" of the group. The 3rd new player was bouncing between the Ranger she made to try the game out with her boyfriend or something new. We went back and forth a few times her asking a question or two, me asking her a few. Eventually, she settled on a Druid. I'm so happy :) Mostly because I'm a few levels ahead of her and can help her and it'll give me the chance to see one played differently. She's a bit sarcastic IRL and a lot of fun. Not a dippie hippie by any means so I doubt I'll see that stereotype played out. I'm definitely looking forward to what she'll do. (in case you're wondering I didn't go the full hippie route either even though I'm a bit of one IRL sometimes - I did have breakfast with a squirrel a few weeks ago)

The two experienced players... One, my current DM (and Druid's BF), started on a whim. He rolled up a Halfling Warlock that he was going to use in her trial adventure in case she needed an NPC for backup. As he saw what the other players were considering his non-optimal party make up sensors started firing. Although he's always wanted to play a Warlock, he started considering switching to Cleric. I assured him that I could make adjustments so, "play what you want". I'm not sure if he believed me or not. It may just the years of "there has to be a Cleric" mentality shining thru even though the Druid and Bard have access to healing. The other player went almost exactly the same way. He's was thinking either a Wood Elf Ranger or Gnome Wizard. When hearing the party so far he instantly volunteered to be a Cleric "because of party need". I offered him a hint or two about the campaign because a cleric could be really strong in it and an elf would offer interesting dynamics down the road. He was also worried about his wizard and the warlock being too redundant but I ultimately told him the same thing... "play what you want". he hasn't made up his mind yet but that's fine.

In the end I really hope they all "play what they want", something they can have fun and identify with rather than something that just filled a need. I feel that either way I can challenge them appropriately and if they decided to play a party of all wizards and I didn't adjust, it would be MY fault not theirs for making a "weird" party. It's my job to craft a good story for the party that shows up. But funny thing is, the experienced players can't seem to believe that. 

Through the whole process, it has been real interesting listening to their opinions about playing certain races or classes as boring/standard. No big surprise, they are all different.

One thing they all have in common? As far as I know not one of them has a name yet :)

-TND

Getting Close!

I've just about done it. Running my first campaign is getting close to being a reality! I have a group of 5 players that are ready to sit around and listen to my bs. A few even seem excited about it. 

I've been casually world building for a few months and that alone has already been fun and I'm really looking forward to filling in more details. (There is sooo much left to do!) A lot of what isn't done yet deals with stuff I still have to learn about the game but I'm confident that those details won't be needed from the start anyway. The ideas for this world and campaign came from a couple text adventures I improvised for other players in my game. That game where I'm a PC is real spotty so I figured there'd be room for another game and my current DM would get a chance to be a PC too.

I've had it in my mind that I wanted to start the campaign late summer/early fall and it looks like we'll hit that easily or even a little early. I'm just waiting on characters from 2 players and some names and backstories. Once I have those, I plan on running short one-offs for my players to role play out their back story a bit and introduce each to the starting circumstances of the main story. 

Here's the cliche laden :) campaign outline I sent to my new players.

Seem like a good start? 

Hopefully running a game will give me more to talk about here over the coming months
Happy Gaming
-TND

Epic Fail - 3rd Session Wrap

Well, now that I've had about a week to digest what happened... It's clear the party failed. Horribly. We had a fairly straight forward objective but we got sidetracked by a trick. Our main objective took longer and as a result met someone who set us up to basically kill the tavern owner we were working for and set the entire town on fire. One our way back, we were given a box to bring to the owner (as far as we knew). It didn't look right, showed magical properties etc. On our return, our cleric let another character talk him out of keeping the box out of town. I was around back of the tavern trying to tend to an NPC that had been injured so I couldn't put my two cents in.

I also didn't originally trust the person that gave us the box but my character has made some very rash decisions and decided to let another lead the way. I don't want to even get into what we did during the side quest... It wasn't pretty. We kind of succeeded there but I have a feeling we created a more powerful foe that will be a problem later on. We also learned the hard way that our party hasn't been very detail oriented so far. Hopefully that improves.

Our first night in town, we had a quick skirmish that raised questions from the local authorities. Adding the events from this session, I have a feeling we are going to be in some serious trouble. I'm kind of dreading what I will hear what will happen next time. By "dreading" I mean anxiously waiting with a big grin on my face because oh, boy! It'll be a challenge :) Carric's (my character) levels of disbelief, confusion, and anger are swirling, his sense of vengeance is swelling. The primal nature that he taps into to assume the form of beasts is raging.


Will the wild boar lash out?

Or will he be able to steady himself and let wisdom be the solution?...

I'm a DM Now?

In the very short time I've been playing D&D I've played live 3 times. The first two times as a PC. I've wrote about them already. It has been tough going so far to coordinate our very busy lives to get regular dates set. In the meantime I ran a couple solo text adventures for my fellow adventurers. They were supposed to be quick encounters to break the waiting and give us an excuse to roll dice even though it wasn't a real game. The first one lasted several hours when the Barbarian in the party yelled back down the alley and told the damsel in distress to "shut up!" So instead of a quick run down an alley, kill a couple goblins get on with your day, I got to improvise a small story line. It was fun!

The next text adventure I did was an idea I had for our cleric. That one lasted over parts of almost 2 days (with long breaks in between). It was a little more set up than the previous but was largely improvised as well but with the time in between responses it was easy to plan a couple moves ahead. Even with that he managed to surprise me which was very cool and made the story so much better.

Last weekend I tried my hand at officially sitting behind the screen and running a one off. One player was our Barbarian who is completely obsessed with the game now and the other was our friend from our regular gaming group who wanted to give D&D a try. It was different to say the least.

 I ran  "Bandit's Nest" by Dan Coleman. It is a really cool adventure that was perfect for a one off. I won't go into spoilers just in case. Good creatures and layout. I really liked the encounter and glad I found it.

How did it go? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure. They both seemed to enjoy it. We bogged on rules once or twice, but not enough to crash the game. I kind of expected that anyway since we are all still so green. I was extremely disappointed that they didn't go into one location. It would have been soooo cool. I had special music for that one and everything. I think it would have scared the ... out of them :)

The biggest difference that I noticed while running this vs. the two text adventures that were my own story is that I was having trouble getting a good flow putting the info out there since it wasn't "my story". I had reviewed and read through the material several times but still had to refer to the hard copies a little too much. I'm sure that would have worked easier if I was using/inserting this as part of a larger campaign. The upside? I didn't have to design the encounters within the story.

Overall, I liked the experience. I have started building the framework and feel of a world, a basic story line and studying up. Once I clear up some time after finishing Pandemic Legacy, I think it'll be time to officially dive in and do it for real!

Don't be ashamed!

It may sound strange to say in this day and age since it seems like "Geek Culture" is in now but depending on how your social circles overlap, it could still be common to be in a situation where you may feel like you should hide your hobbies for the possibility of getting made fun of or ridiculed etc. Don't be ashamed!

Before we get started, this isn't another one of those "you're a special little snowflake" article that encourages you to not fear for anything "because you are awesome!". Don't get me wrong. I'm not putting those down. They have their place but I don't feel that they are overly realistic at times (especially when you don't feel very awesome and people are going out of their way to reinforce that) But, if they help even one person pick themselves up and move through a shitty day, GREAT! If they help the overall mental health of someone, great!

So, now that's been said, what is this article about? Simple. Something cool happened to me the other day and I thought I'd share. In retrospect little things like this have been happening to me more and more lately but this one stood out.

I'm sitting at work and there are 4 of us in one good size office - people I've been friends with for years. One has been my best friend for about 20 years, another we both met that later came to work with us and another that has been in our office for only a couple years. None of my coworkers are gamers. My best friend sees games as a waste of time for people that cant "F or fight" but he's an artist and despite his bravado, people's quirks, hobbies and obsessions intrigue and amuse him in a mostly nonjudgmental way. My next oldest friend likes to "laugh with people". That is her kind of guilty way of justifying making fun of people she doesn't understand. Even though I tend to be one of those people, I know that she has a heart of gold so I usually easily dismiss it, take a dig back at her and move on.  I bet by now you're still wondering where this is all going...

Time to time, she sees a group of LARPers at a public park near her mother's house. This usually causes laughter from my coworkers. They'll look at me and ask me what my costume is even though they know I don't LARP but they do know I tried D&D way back in the day and usually slip into the stereotypical jokes about it. My best friend looks at me and asks completely seriously. "you only played once or twice back in the day but you play now right?"

My answer was simple... "Yup". Unapologetic, unfazed and so matter of fact that there were no jokes, and  I didn't get made fun of. Instead they looked at me, paused and asked a couple serious questions about what it actually was. How it was played etc... Now they aren't angels and we were listening to "Hello from the Magic Tavern" (it was an accent heavy episode) and the jokester did chuckle and ask me if we talked like that. (fair enough) I explained that my group is pretty new to it so no, no one is doing voices yet, not sure if anyone will. She said "oh.", the conversation ended and we went about our business.

Even at my age and my increasingly I really don't give a fuck what someone thinks about me attitude, old social insecurities and feeling still sneak in but it was nice to have this one go as it should because I simply owned something, made no apologies for something I really enjoy and in the end, because of that, didn't allow them to make me or one of my hobbies a farce. 

If you do something, anything... Own it! No one can take that from you. If they try, just handling it that way on your side will make you more resolute and not really care. It's kinda nice.

Stay Awesome!
-TND