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
