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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 10:01AM
#1
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How many TPK's (Total Party Kills) have you had since DMing the play test packet 2?
I've had 2 but only play tested for around 3 hours.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 10:24AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jul 15, 2008
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I have about 6.5 hours over two campaigns with not even a death yet, much less a TPK. I have a mix of some fairly new to veteran players, from early teens to late 40s (if I had to guess).
There's been a lot of roleplaying, though, and not nearly as much focus on rushing into combat, so that might slant the numbers a bit. More than half their time has been roleplaying with NPCs & each other, exploring, and interacting with the world.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 11:04AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Dec 21, 2011
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One thing I applaud in D&DNext so far is that players feel vulnerable again. As a result, I'm finding that my players look for ways to avoid combat if possible, or make sure that if they do enter a combat, they can have an advantage of numbers or positioning.
Many encounters in the playtest adventures are not meant to be balanced. I like that the players have to assess the situation and decide when to cut and run.
The vulnerability of the PCs helps balance the game so that combat does not take over. Exploration and interaction are now more valuable phases of the overall system because combat is de-emphasized.
If DMs and players don't like the vulnerability of the core, they can easily change beginning hit points by granting Survivor or just flat out adding +5, +10 to each PC.
I'll be running a session this weekend with playtest #2 and I look forward to having my players feel vulnerable.
Question: I have created a mini-adventure of my own that I think the players can finish in 2-3 hours. Do you think I should run that with them, or do you think I should use the playtest #2 adventure? I'm on the fence. I think I'm going to use my own adventure...but any suggestions will be helpful.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 11:15AM
#4
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2010
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How many TPK's (Total Party Kills) have you had since DMing the play test packet 2?
I've had 2 but only play tested for around 3 hours.
Actual DMing? 0 But I don't run combat focused adventures that often, so it is natural. Combat simulations, etc. suggest that some encounters well within XP budget can be too dangerous.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 11:23AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 15, 2008
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Question: I have created a mini-adventure of my own that I think the players can finish in 2-3 hours. Do you think I should run that with them, or do you think I should use the playtest #2 adventure? I'm on the fence. I think I'm going to use my own adventure...but any suggestions will be helpful.
I would think that, as long as you are using the creatures and rules as presented, whether or not it's their adventure or yours doesn't really mean all that much. You'll still be giving valuable input based off of your playtest experiences using the material they gave you.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 11:27AM
#6
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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One thing I applaud in D&DNext so far is that players feel vulnerable again....
I'll be running a session this weekend with playtest #2 and I look forward to having my players feel vulnerable.
Question: I have created a mini-adventure of my own that I think the players can finish in 2-3 hours. Do you think I should run that with them, or do you think I should use the playtest #2 adventure? I'm on the fence. I think I'm going to use my own adventure...but any suggestions will be helpful.
I would have to say, go for it! You may well uncover an unforseen problem when testing your own material. Just please post the outcome of testing here for all of us to enjoy and discuss. It has been really enjoyable reading some of the results from the first, & now in part second packet.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 12:31PM
#7
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2010
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Question: I have created a mini-adventure of my own that I think the players can finish in 2-3 hours. Do you think I should run that with them, or do you think I should use the playtest #2 adventure? I'm on the fence. I think I'm going to use my own adventure...but any suggestions will be helpful.
We have XP budget, encounter design rules, etc to test them, so you should run your own adventures and encounters. It would be more interesting, if you would post how you felt about creating he adventure, what you came up with, what happened. If in this report you share the adventure then we can even run it 
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 1:13PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Dec 21, 2011
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Thanks for the advice guys. I will run my own mini-adventure. It is a rough hodge podge of notes, but after I run it, I'll write up the playtest report to give you some narrative and comments as usual.
Since the designers seem to have just eyeballed the xp points for monsters, and I suspect they have not really thought about and tested their numbers too well, I kind of eyeballed the encounters. I'm banking on the fact that since the monsters have such low to hit bonueses, even if I throw in a Goblin Leader, and a Bugbear taskmaster into a couple of encounters, it won't end in total ruin for 3-4 1st level PCs.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 2:19PM
#9
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Not only did my group not have any TPKs, my 1st-level characters barely took damage in the part of the adventure we ran. They just rolled over the opposition.
I ran the House Center adventure with a human fighter (protector, survivor), a human sorcerer (survivor), the pregen human cleric (swapping in the healer specialty), and a wood elf rogue (thug scheme, thief background).
As far as I can tell, we played by the book. I'm an experienced DM, so I'm pretty sure I didn't make any glaring errors in role-playing monsters, etc.
The rogue scouted ahead all the time. The party only gained surprise once, but they were never surprised either. We hit all the encounters in that adventure (although we had technically ended without the stirges, so we just ran through that part of the adventure anyway for fun, and only lost about 5 more hit points). They seemed to down most of the monsters in their first turn--often before the monsters had a chance to act. Maybe they were extraordinarily lucky with initiative. I could tell, however, from glancing over the rest of the adventure that this was by no means the hardest one in the packet.
Did anyone else find their players pwning the opposition like that?
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10 months ago ::
Aug 22, 2012 - 2:21PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Aug 16, 2012
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Status: Mid-point of Caves of Chaos.
Deaths: One party member killed.
Total Party Kills: None.
Close Shaves: More than a few, but these occurred early on.
General Impression: After the players started to gel and began to realize how dangerous the monsters could be, they started using careful planning and were more disciplined with regard to the management of their available resources. Utilization of environment has been a huge factor. The players are thinking, that much is for sure.
Edit: For those interested, the band consists of a rotating cast of seven PCs. Only four players are permitted to take part in the playtest at any one time, so I just rotate them out on a sessional basis.
The available roster contains two fighters, two clerics, one rogue, one sorceror, and one wizard. I have split their rotation so that there is usually a cleric present at all times, but this hasn't always been the case. The party composition does make a difference, but the players (all new to D&D save for three) have managed to adapt quite well. I'm not pulling any punches, either, so that says something. Honestly, I've been quite impressed by the way they've handled themselves.
Now, I must say that the tone of the game has become more gritty and expedition-oriented than 4E, but once the players realized that they weren't going to be able to clear the whole cavern in one evening, they started behaving in a more cautious manner. The fact that the caves are constantly adapting and being restocked has made them respect the environment as much as they do the critters that lurk there.
All in all... I think they're enjoying themselves. I still have misgivings about the system, but the fact that I've got a bunch of players whooping it up is enough to make me forget about them (my misgivings)... most of the time.
Cheers all.
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