Post by oakesspalding on Nov 28, 2014 11:12:27 GMT -6
Here is a quick report of a five-hour Zylarthen session with my nephews Gabriel and Iain, twelve and ten, who had never played a role-playing game before.
Each decided to play Elves, giving them the names, "Zylar" and "Arthen", respectively. Since in Zylarthen, following OD&D, Elves get to decide which class to play on each adventure, one played a Fighting-Man and the other a Magic-User.
Since they were a party of only two I gave then 500 extra silvers for hirelings. They hired ANOTHER Elf (or Elf Legionnaire) and five Varangians.
Their destination was Stonehell.
There, they shot a rabbit, had a friendly exchange with a Kobold work crew, killed a Ghoul at first blow, and defeated four Zombies (though not without losing two Varangians). The epic battle was ended when an entire melee group of three zombies and six surviving friendlies was put to sleep by Arthen, leaving an unsleepy Zylar and an unsleepy Zombie facing off. They also discovered a "sleeping Dragon", which they soon learned was actually a Gecko Lizard that was not sleeping but dead, having been stuffed and put on display by the Kobolds. Next to it was a plaque dedicated to my wife, Julie (she who "was kind even to kobolds"), whose party had befriended the Kobolds and killed the Lizard three years (in real time) before.
Lessons for all of us:
1. As a Referee I have to resist the urge to go too fast. I always feel like time is, so to speak, running out. Things always take longer than you want them to, and I know people have to go home in an hour, or whatever, but I went them to get to the part with that exciting monster or trap. Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do about it?
2. I wanted these first-time role-players to have the experience of buying things, but that ate up time. Perhaps we should have used the prepared character equipment lists. Then again, they seemed to have as much fun buying things as in exploring. And we used my stock of "real" money-dimes for silvers and quarters for gold. ("Wow, Uncle Oakes, how much money do you HAVE?" Answer: not as much as you might think.)
3. One coil of 50' of rope is not enough. Immediately they wanted to go down the well to the second level, but the rope wouldn't go down far enough.
4. The thing about Stonehell, especially with new players, is that much of it seems empty (like any classically designed megadungeon), hence their desire to go down that well so they could "fight something". I probably should have used the "dungeon dressing" suggestions more liberally to make the empty parts more interesting. Then again I wanted them to get to that interesting monster...
5. Varangians rock. They carry spears with battle-axes in reserve and have an armor class of 2 when they're not using the spears two-handed. This is of course better than the leather or mail than most new characters can afford. In Zylarthen a spear is the most effective weapon (along with the longsword) at Armor Class 6 or above, which covers most 1st level monsters. And it's length gives an attacking group the first blow. So right there, with a few Varangians in front, you have a better than even chance of knocking off a few Zombies or Kobolds before they can respond. It will cost you approximately 60 silvers to hire a Varangian for a week. But that's a good value when you consider that some of that is a fixed cost (those 15 SP iron rations) or money you would spend anyway to advertise for anyone.
6. I fudged a poison needle roll. It would have killed Arthen, which I thought would have been pretty mean for his first character so soon after emerging from buying things. So I had him take 1-6 points of damage, which reduced him to 1 point. That alone freaked him out. He will never open another chest again without checking.
7. I played the sleep spell as affecting everyone (foe and friend) within the area of effect. That actually made for some fun suspense to see who succumbed. I assume that's how most play it, or am I wrong on this?
8. I find reminding the players to keep track of what they're holding in their hands--which weapon, or if they have a torch or mapping materials, etc.--to be sort of tiring. I need to impress upon them their own responsibility for this, if that makes sense.
9. I tried to impress upon them that while hirelings are helpful (and cheap at the price), they're not slaves. You can't keep asking them to do dangerous things for you. Zylar and Arthen got freaked out at that rabbit on the post (as people new to Stonehell often seem to), shot the poor creature from 100 feet out, and then asked one of the macho, plate armored Varangians to retrieve the carcass for them. I decided that the Varangians would find this humorous--"you'd like me to bring you the dead rabbit, sir?" I thought this would impart the message that even with a Charisma of 17 you have to be careful what image you create when being a leader of men, especially if you are an Elf leading men...
10. Refereeing is TIRING. I forget that every time. I need to find some way to better mentally pace myself.
In any case, it was quite fun. I'm looking forward to playing with them again.
Each decided to play Elves, giving them the names, "Zylar" and "Arthen", respectively. Since in Zylarthen, following OD&D, Elves get to decide which class to play on each adventure, one played a Fighting-Man and the other a Magic-User.
Since they were a party of only two I gave then 500 extra silvers for hirelings. They hired ANOTHER Elf (or Elf Legionnaire) and five Varangians.
Their destination was Stonehell.
There, they shot a rabbit, had a friendly exchange with a Kobold work crew, killed a Ghoul at first blow, and defeated four Zombies (though not without losing two Varangians). The epic battle was ended when an entire melee group of three zombies and six surviving friendlies was put to sleep by Arthen, leaving an unsleepy Zylar and an unsleepy Zombie facing off. They also discovered a "sleeping Dragon", which they soon learned was actually a Gecko Lizard that was not sleeping but dead, having been stuffed and put on display by the Kobolds. Next to it was a plaque dedicated to my wife, Julie (she who "was kind even to kobolds"), whose party had befriended the Kobolds and killed the Lizard three years (in real time) before.
Lessons for all of us:
1. As a Referee I have to resist the urge to go too fast. I always feel like time is, so to speak, running out. Things always take longer than you want them to, and I know people have to go home in an hour, or whatever, but I went them to get to the part with that exciting monster or trap. Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do about it?
2. I wanted these first-time role-players to have the experience of buying things, but that ate up time. Perhaps we should have used the prepared character equipment lists. Then again, they seemed to have as much fun buying things as in exploring. And we used my stock of "real" money-dimes for silvers and quarters for gold. ("Wow, Uncle Oakes, how much money do you HAVE?" Answer: not as much as you might think.)
3. One coil of 50' of rope is not enough. Immediately they wanted to go down the well to the second level, but the rope wouldn't go down far enough.
4. The thing about Stonehell, especially with new players, is that much of it seems empty (like any classically designed megadungeon), hence their desire to go down that well so they could "fight something". I probably should have used the "dungeon dressing" suggestions more liberally to make the empty parts more interesting. Then again I wanted them to get to that interesting monster...
5. Varangians rock. They carry spears with battle-axes in reserve and have an armor class of 2 when they're not using the spears two-handed. This is of course better than the leather or mail than most new characters can afford. In Zylarthen a spear is the most effective weapon (along with the longsword) at Armor Class 6 or above, which covers most 1st level monsters. And it's length gives an attacking group the first blow. So right there, with a few Varangians in front, you have a better than even chance of knocking off a few Zombies or Kobolds before they can respond. It will cost you approximately 60 silvers to hire a Varangian for a week. But that's a good value when you consider that some of that is a fixed cost (those 15 SP iron rations) or money you would spend anyway to advertise for anyone.
6. I fudged a poison needle roll. It would have killed Arthen, which I thought would have been pretty mean for his first character so soon after emerging from buying things. So I had him take 1-6 points of damage, which reduced him to 1 point. That alone freaked him out. He will never open another chest again without checking.
7. I played the sleep spell as affecting everyone (foe and friend) within the area of effect. That actually made for some fun suspense to see who succumbed. I assume that's how most play it, or am I wrong on this?
8. I find reminding the players to keep track of what they're holding in their hands--which weapon, or if they have a torch or mapping materials, etc.--to be sort of tiring. I need to impress upon them their own responsibility for this, if that makes sense.
9. I tried to impress upon them that while hirelings are helpful (and cheap at the price), they're not slaves. You can't keep asking them to do dangerous things for you. Zylar and Arthen got freaked out at that rabbit on the post (as people new to Stonehell often seem to), shot the poor creature from 100 feet out, and then asked one of the macho, plate armored Varangians to retrieve the carcass for them. I decided that the Varangians would find this humorous--"you'd like me to bring you the dead rabbit, sir?" I thought this would impart the message that even with a Charisma of 17 you have to be careful what image you create when being a leader of men, especially if you are an Elf leading men...
10. Refereeing is TIRING. I forget that every time. I need to find some way to better mentally pace myself.
In any case, it was quite fun. I'm looking forward to playing with them again.