I had my first session as a DM for my regular Living Forgotten Realms group. And, all in all, it went okay. It was certainly a learning experience, that's for sure.
And while I was really proud of how the final battle went, there were more than enough things that could have been better.
First of all, I shouldn't have started with a My Realms adventure. While it certainly worked, and I'm really proud of the story (and some of the events it set into motion), I think I was still too green to do it justice. Ultimately, I probably could have learned more, and had less stress, if I went with a prepared module.
The idea was to do something small that would allow me to get my feet wet and give the characters a way from getting from their current location to their next adventure, and I did that well, I think. But, because I was making up all the encounters and skill checks myself, some things that I had planned went right out the window and I wasn't quite skilled enough to roll with it.
To give a little insight, the adventure consisted of a lot of role playing (which the players did incredibly well), a skill challenge (which has a ton of potential to work, but I messed up), and two fighting encounters.
I'll skip discussing the skill challenge. I really think it could be something special if done correctly so I want to write it up as it's own entry.
So, skip to the next big failure - the zombie horde. I love zombies, I love the undead - Hell, I even run the website, FastMovingZombies.com - so I was really excited to include some zombies in this adventure. Unfortunately, because of the LFR XP limitations and some really stupid mistakes on my part, the PC's crushed the zombies without breaking a sweat.
So, what went wrong?
- XP limits: LFR has limits to how much XP you can use in a module. I needed to spread that out over several encounters and skill challenges in order to have a full session. That meant that in order to have a HORDE of zombies, I had to use a lot of minions. I used 8 level 3 Zombie Rotters and 4 level 2 Zombies against a party that averaged at level 3. So, it should have worked, but these low level zombies just don't hit very hard or very accurately.
- I screwed up: I had the zombies come in waves of 4. In the first round, two PCs went, then the zombies, then 2 more PCs. After the round was completed, 4 more zombies showed up. However, instead of keeping them in the same initiative order, I left them at the end of the round, because I figured that's when they arrived, so that's when they should act. This was wrong-bad-dumb. Basically, it allowed all 4 PCs to act and wipe them out before they had a chance to do anything.
And, as I said before, the final encounter went really well. Though some of the monsters fell pretty quickly, the trap door, the Necromancer and the turncoat kept the PCs on their toes and really made them fight for their lives. No one died, but they were really pushed to their limits. It was awesome.
So, definitely a learning experience and I cannot wait to get behind the DM screen again.
