|
12 months ago ::
Jul 06, 2012 - 7:03AM
#11
|
Date Joined:
Apr 11, 2007
|
"DM4life", LOL! I so want that on a T-shirt or something! We've always pronounced "electrum" the same way you would "electric", eh-LECT-rum. I'd do character accents from time to time, pronouncing it "ee-LECT-rum", "LECT-rum" (dropping the first syllable), or even cutting the name altogether by paying tribute to the old British "ha' pence" by calling it a "ha' gold".
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 06, 2012 - 12:33PM
#12
|
|
|
Knowing my luck I'll get drunk and wake up with it tattooed across my knuckles :S Got the group coming over in a few minutes for Caves of Chaos round 2! When I asked them what they wanted to play tonight one player responded; "New edition! I want to be a glowing sun beam priest!"...that guy is a bit too attached to his radiant lance power.
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 06, 2012 - 3:09PM
#13
|
Date Joined:
Apr 11, 2007
|
LOL! I'll bring the drinks! Have fun, though it sounds like that's a foregone conclusion!
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 06, 2012 - 6:20PM
#14
|
|
|
Session 2 Same players as last time using the same characters (both Clerics and the Wizard) but the player controlling Veers the Wizard left half way through. The second act of the game included the Dwarf Fighter (Karsa) and the Halfling Rogue (Topper). I allowed the monsters to use their special abilities and while once again the fights remained isolated this was due to poor rolling for the monsters who never managed to get away and warn their fellows. What happened:Spoiler:
Show
After a bit of trading with the merchants and a good nights rest the party heads back to the Goblins and makes good on their agreement to acquire the Ogre's protection for the tribe. In return the Goblins give them some info on the surrounding area which included the location of the Hobgoblin caves, the fact that no one goes into cave G and that the two Orc clans (the Red Hands of area C and the Dark Skies of area B) have both sent troops to claim the now vacant Kobold caves. They also learn that the two Orc leaders are meeting that day to settle the matter. After the goblins decline a alliance with the PCs to fight the Hobgoblins (the goblins hate their larger cousins but are two fearful to oppose them) the party decides to head back to the Kobold caves and see if they can turn the Orc clans against each other.
After some failed diplomacy the party is forced to take down two Red Hands guarding the cave. The PCs then investigate the Garbage Heap room they didn't bother with the previous day. They are ambushed by Dark Skies Orcs and after a battle which sees Veers the Wizard knocked down, but quickly revived, the PCs are victorious. They then drag the two dead Red Hands in from outside and arrange the bodies to look like the Orcs had slain each other and then make a hasty exit.
At this point the guy playing Veers had to leave so the elf was left behind near the Kobold caves to keep an eye on what happens while the rest of the group went to raid the Hobgoblin lair. The two remaining players took control of the Dwarf Fighter (Karsa) and the Halfing Rogue (Topper) in addition to their usual characters.
After easily figuring out the Hobgoblin door mechanism the party sent Topper ahead to scout the nearest three rooms. When the halfling gave himself away spying on the jailers in the cells another short combat followed with no problems for the party. They freed the merchant and his company and one of the guards elected to stay behind and join them (Eddard). They quiz the Gnoll and Ishrak the Orc (Dark Skies clan) and find that the tribes that rebelled against the Queen now owe their fealty to someone known as the Howling Lord (throwing this in as some foreshadowing for our usual 3E campaign) and are preparing to go to war. The PCs release the Gnoll who heads home while Ishrak joins them in their raid against the Hobgoblins to regain his honour - he was caught raiding supplies and is shamed to have been taken alive (hey just cus' the Orcs and Hobgoblins are on the same team doesn't make them BFFs).
With their new allies the party storms the nearest guard room taking the Hobgoblins by surprise. Eddard brings down a Hobgoblin before being killed in turn (decapitated like his namesake) and Ishrak turns on the party after slaying one of the Hobgoblins - in my mind Orcs have a very odd sense of honour and once Ishrak had restored his by killing one of his captors he considered the matter settled and resumed his duty to destroy those who would oppose the Howling Lord. The session ends with Ishrak and the Hobgoblins being defeated with no loss to the party, who chases down the last Hobgoblin who tries to run for help. Notes from this session: * The fighter was a welcome addition to the party though one player put forward that his Reaper ability was a bit overpowered but we did acknowledge that it would probably be less effective at higher levels/against tougher monsters. * I'd say that the skill mastery ability granted the Rogue too much of a bonus but it did give him a very defined role as the group's scout as a minimum of 16 on stealth checks let him get the lay of the land and kept the party from blundering into encounters that might have been overwhelming. * Despite using the monster's special abilities this time round combat went much more in favor of the PCs. Only one character was taken below 0 HP in four battles and one player commented that they were being more tactical when playing this edition. This is pretty true, in our other games the PCs usually fight as individuals with little thought to acting as a team but not so in this play test - abilities like Defender really encourage the players to work together. * Once again backgrounds/themes didn't come up much in the game passed their skill/ability contributions. As I said before perhaps I just need to provide more role play opportunities for these to come up but thus far no situation had lended themselves to it. Same with a lot of the skills; we;ve not used many other than Stealth, Perception and Diplomacy. Still it's early days (I can see this lasting at least another four sessions and the story is just unfolding) and I'm sure opportunities will present themselves. * Being that there were no rules for Attacks of Opportunity I've just been (roughly) using the 3E rules. I thought about not using them since they weren't mentioned but kept them in for now as without them there seemed to be too much maneuverability on the battle field without consequence - running away also seemed like to much of an easy option in many situations. * Being able to break up movement to move before and after attacks has been used to good effect by the PCs ranged characters when lines of sight are limited.
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 3:58PM
#15
|
|
|
Session 3 The two cleric players return and a new player (D&D newbie who has only started playing with us a few months ago). Picking up from last time the party took a severed Hobgoblin head and used it to help cow a room of off duty guards. They told the horrified Hobgoblins to take a hike but didn't ensure they actually left the caves (only two were scared enough to desert - the others went to raise the alarm). The players fight their way through Armoury and into the next guard room where they are ambushed. The fighter goes down and is carried off by two Hobgoblins while the others held off the adventurers. Notes from this session: * The two clerics levelled up (they were the only constant players and hit level 2 after the last fight of this session). The Pelor Cleric was excited at the prospect of using his Area of Effect power. * More use of Stealth/Sneak Attacks, Surprise and Cover in this game. Not much to comment on, the rules for those seem to work pretty well. * The lack of info behind the stats came up again when the Cleric of Moradin found a ranged weapon and had no ranged stats to refer to. Again not a big deal but it would be nice to know what makes up each of our attack modifiers. That was about it. The session was really short - no one seemed all that into it this evening and overall it wasn't a great session. The novelty of the new rules and powers had worn off and I don't think my group is really feeling the extended dungeon crawl. I get a sense this game might be abandoned in favour of our regular campaign; between various commitments we can usually only get one session per week at best, so choice of game is crucial decision. I'd like to continue as there is now plenty of stuff going on that will make a change from just going room to room exterminating monsters. There's the rescuing of the fighter to be done, the main plot needs pushing to the forefront and the PCs have stirred up the wasps nest enough that I'm going to give them some retaliation from the creatures (I'm thinking midnight Bugbear attack on the camp). But I think I might have left it too late and everyone would be happier going back to our 3rd Edition game - but that’s cool too. The players are quite invested in those characters and there is plenty of cool stuff going on there to get back too.
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 5:44PM
#16
|
Date Joined:
Nov 15, 2008
|
Thank you very much for the write-up.
If you get another session in, I would suggest removing the AoOs and play the rules as written.
My group found that they really like the freedom of movement and the hectic flow of combats.
And with your clear write-ups I would be very interested to read how your group handles it.
Also, remember that a new packet will be released sometime "around the end of summer". Maybe at that time you can pick it up again if your group does decide to stop for now.
Viva La "what ever version of D&D you are playing right now!"
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 6:20PM
#17
|
Date Joined:
Apr 11, 2007
|
Yeah, I'm looking forward to a continuation of this write-up myself! I'm also keeping our Next game on hold until the next packet. Meanwhile, it's back to 2e where an innocent wish continues to go horribly awry!
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 17, 2012 - 1:20PM
#18
|
|
|
Cheers guys - the more I think about it the more I really want to see this game through to the end. Perhaps the last session was just an off night (I had one player call me up today and apologise for not being very engaging - personal issues were on their mind) and I'll sound out everyone's thought's on it before making a decision. Even if the group doesn't want to carry on I think I can convince at least on player to keep at it even if we switch back to the 3rd Edition campaign for our regular sessions. If there is one thing I hate about gaming it’s that there is never enough time for all the stories we want to play. We've had a on-off Star Wars campaign going on for six years, the new edition rules to try out, a Dark Heresy game waiting in the wings and our 3rd Edition campaign which is just getting really interesting: the PCs have their own castle with a growing supporting cast of retainers and are hell bent on reshaping the political scene of a entire kingdom. I had hoped to tie in the Caves of Chaos game as a spin off from the 3E campaign to foreshadow the Big Bad and have some characters cross over (e.g. those Kobolds that were driven off in the first session of the play test are going to be looking for a new home). I'll take your advice PinkRose and drop AoOs for the next session just to see how things go - I did think that perhaps I should have done from the start as they weren't in the rules but I was sceptical about giving the players (and monsters for that matter) so much freedom on the field without consequence. ShiftKitty, what was the wish in you 2E game? I want to guess how it goes wrong :D
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 17, 2012 - 7:05PM
#19
|
Date Joined:
Apr 11, 2007
|
The wish was that they (the party) would become "the best in our chosen careers". The party consists of a wizard who is overly fond of drink, a cleric who is so devastatingly good-looking that he has drawn the envy of his own deity, a fighter who was born in the temple of an evil deity and is on the run from the cult, and a thief with a horrible stutter.
|
|
|
|
12 months ago ::
Jul 19, 2012 - 4:02PM
#20
|
|
|
Ok here are my guesses: The Fighter becomes so good that he is constantly being challenged by aspiring warriors who want to make a name for themselves by defeating the best fighter in the land and/or his reputation as the best fighter leads the evil cult to him. The cleric begins to be seen as the physical embodiment of his god bringing on more divine envy and "I'm not the messiah!" moments. Or he starts converting everyone who he talks to about his religion and inadvertently creates an army of fanatical worshippers who cause havoc by taking the tenants of the religion too literally. The thief starts to steal compulsively and can't stop. Can't guess of a specific one for the wizard but I imagine there are plenty of ways a alcoholic all powerful wizard could end up in trouble. I'm seeing my group again tomorrow and I'm going bring up the subject of continuing the Caves of Chaos with them (we aren't doing D&D tomorrow night, just playing a board game). One player I chatted too the other day mentioned that he felt all the skills in 3rd Edition let you personalise your character a lot more and helped to avoid pigeonholing.
|
|
|
