bluegargantua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluegargantua) wrote2008-09-08 04:20 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2008-09-08 04:20 pm
Entry tags:
All you need is your Imagination!
Hey,
So a friend of mine had her 38th birthday this Saturday. She really wanted to play croquet and old school, Meitzer-edition Red Box Dungeons and Dragons. My nostalgia bug hit and I was like "Yeah, I'll run a game for you!".
Well, the hurricane made croquet a non-starter, but the game was on. I picked module B7 Rahasia as it was well-reviewed on the internet and it seemed to have a wide range of challenges, puzzles, traps and monsters. I did my prep work. I made up cheat sheets and handouts. I was ready to go.
And in classic D&D style, none of the players were. I had 9 players, only one of whom had actually made up their character ahead of time. So it was good that croquet was canceled because there was plenty of time to go around and explain the system.
Man -- reading the Basic D&D book there's so much stuff that makes you shake your head. The armor classes and saving throws all run backwards. A few people had never played D&D (in any format really) and were confused about the attribute adjustment.
"What's your strength?"
"I got an 18."
"Good, you get a +3 adjustment"
"So my strength is 21?"
"um...no..."
Yeah, something that's still not fixed -- in D&D once you generate your initial stats, you almost never refer to them again. It's the attribute bonuses that are important.
Also, everyone wanted to be chaotic and in basic D&D that really wasn't going to fly. I insisted that everyone be lawful and just deal.
So in the end we had:
The group was called "Nine of the Crossroads". We fully expected long-winded explanations when they broke into the Big Bad's sanctum and then had to explain why there was only three of them left.
So...huge group. Luckily, D&D has a solution. Sweet William was the Caller. In all non-combat scenarios, she announced what the group was doing. Chauncey was the mapper. Harmony was the secretary (found loot and XP). Things were still pretty chaotic, but it mostly worked out ok.
Right, so the basic set up was that the party came across an elven village. Up the hill was a temple where strapping young elves went to study philosophy and meditate and stuff. But a few weeks ago, an evil man known as the Rahib showed up and possessed most of the students and staff of the temple. He then attacked the village hoping to capture Rahasia, a beautiful elven maid. Rahasia escaped, but her father and fiance went up to the temple and disappeared. Oh please won't the PCs help?
Mercifully they did.
Highlights of the game included:
At this point, we'd played for about 5 hours and while there was still lots of dungeon and plot left, we called it there. It was a lot of fun and people seemed to enjoy it and the birthday girl was happy so it was all good. But it really makes me itch to play some more basic D&D. Once you get up to 4th level you start branching out and you get more exploratory adventures. Despite the quirks, the game has a sort of simplistic charm that's a treat to relive.
later
Tom
So a friend of mine had her 38th birthday this Saturday. She really wanted to play croquet and old school, Meitzer-edition Red Box Dungeons and Dragons. My nostalgia bug hit and I was like "Yeah, I'll run a game for you!".
Well, the hurricane made croquet a non-starter, but the game was on. I picked module B7 Rahasia as it was well-reviewed on the internet and it seemed to have a wide range of challenges, puzzles, traps and monsters. I did my prep work. I made up cheat sheets and handouts. I was ready to go.
And in classic D&D style, none of the players were. I had 9 players, only one of whom had actually made up their character ahead of time. So it was good that croquet was canceled because there was plenty of time to go around and explain the system.
Man -- reading the Basic D&D book there's so much stuff that makes you shake your head. The armor classes and saving throws all run backwards. A few people had never played D&D (in any format really) and were confused about the attribute adjustment.
"What's your strength?"
"I got an 18."
"Good, you get a +3 adjustment"
"So my strength is 21?"
"um...no..."
Yeah, something that's still not fixed -- in D&D once you generate your initial stats, you almost never refer to them again. It's the attribute bonuses that are important.
Also, everyone wanted to be chaotic and in basic D&D that really wasn't going to fly. I insisted that everyone be lawful and just deal.
So in the end we had:
- Sweet William -- the birthday girl was a cleric of the 3rd level and had a magic mace.
- Kringis -- The uber elf who had hot dice when rolling up his guy. The only person with an 18 strength.
- Willow -- The human thief. Man...in basic D&D thieves really kinda suck. I should've encouraged the player to go with something else. We didn't have any magic-users for the same reason (once a Magic-user kicks off his lonely spell that's it. The elves get spells and can then swing a sword)
- Chauncey -- The big dumb fighter. Her player had the most D&D experience and she'd gotten her guy together before we sat down so she got plate mail and a +1 bow.
- Celadriel -- Elf maiden.
- Harmony the Harper -- Imagine Salvador Dali...as a Halfling. With a big sack. Fun times.
- Malah -- Halfling who liked stealing things (but not a Halfling Thief because that implies you can be a Halfling and something else).
- Garth the Negotiator -- Garth was a Dwarven negotiator. Garth had a Charisma of 6. I love Garth more than I can say and only wish he'd been luckier when rolling.
- Corvus -- Human cleric.
The group was called "Nine of the Crossroads". We fully expected long-winded explanations when they broke into the Big Bad's sanctum and then had to explain why there was only three of them left.
So...huge group. Luckily, D&D has a solution. Sweet William was the Caller. In all non-combat scenarios, she announced what the group was doing. Chauncey was the mapper. Harmony was the secretary (found loot and XP). Things were still pretty chaotic, but it mostly worked out ok.
Right, so the basic set up was that the party came across an elven village. Up the hill was a temple where strapping young elves went to study philosophy and meditate and stuff. But a few weeks ago, an evil man known as the Rahib showed up and possessed most of the students and staff of the temple. He then attacked the village hoping to capture Rahasia, a beautiful elven maid. Rahasia escaped, but her father and fiance went up to the temple and disappeared. Oh please won't the PCs help?
Mercifully they did.
Highlights of the game included:
- The thief nearly getting killed by the gargoyle.
- The party defeating said gargoyle with only two magic weapons (and a magic missile).
- Shoving (lowering) the halfling down the Well of Punishment.
- The confused encounter with the bandits.
- Mahla warning the bandits not to kill the possessed elves. One of the badits failed to heed the warning and Mahla promptly shot him through the head. The bandit leader wisely disavowed all knowledge of the dead bandit's actions. The party looted the dead bandit and told the rest how to get out.
- Harmony and Mahla having fun with telporters.
- Chauncey having to explain magical physics to the halflings.
- The gelatinous cube fight.
- Beating the "too hard for the PCs" bone golem by the creative use of lassos and magic maces.
- Map-making mistakes galore!
- Beating the Rahib.
At this point, we'd played for about 5 hours and while there was still lots of dungeon and plot left, we called it there. It was a lot of fun and people seemed to enjoy it and the birthday girl was happy so it was all good. But it really makes me itch to play some more basic D&D. Once you get up to 4th level you start branching out and you get more exploratory adventures. Despite the quirks, the game has a sort of simplistic charm that's a treat to relive.
later
Tom
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