Post by abecross on Sept 1, 2009 21:13:25 GMT -6
Until recently I hadn't run or played in a game in over ten years. Last week I ran two adventures for two separate groups that contained totally new players. I ran them both through a megadungeon I am in the process of creating called 'The Temple of the Blind Beholder". (I took the idea of the blind beholder from the "Miscelleneum of Cinder")
Finally convincing my GF that she might like it ("You like being dramatic and you like killing stuff! You would love it!"), I gathered a group of two to play D&D using the B/X rules (because it's what I am most familiar with). The other player had stopped playing around 1983 when his favorite character, in an effort to gain 5 XP, killed the Dungeon Maintenance Man, and was cursed to spend eternity fixing the doors that careless adventurers bashed in. He was excited to play again and rolled up an Elf named Kalek. Melissa, the GF, couldn't think of a name for her MU, so we just decided that she was going nameless as some mages do. I referred to her in the game as "She Who Walks With No Name".
Some highlights:
They ended up exploring a small portion of the dungeon but exploring it pretty thoroughly and making a detailed map. I spent a lot of time clarifying rules for Melissa. They ended the session after a brutal fight with some blind evil priests. It was a great first session in that both players had a blast and were eager to do it again (hopefully with more people).
The next group was a little more difficult as none of the 3 players had ever played an actual RPG before. I spent a lot of time explaining particular rules as well as making suggestions for how to approach things in the dungeon, so they didn't accomplish much in the way of dungeoneering, but here are some highlights of this session:
This was the 2nd time I had DM-ed in quite some time, so I was a bit shaky on a few things. The players didn't quite grasp the exploration aspect of the game and anytime they saw a door immediately tried to open it and go forward. They ended up getting clobbered by some undead nasties that could've been easily avoided. The players had fun though, so I consider it a success. The player who ran Aurelian, Marc, has Asperger's Syndrome, and he had such a great time that I hope he continues to play.
Finally convincing my GF that she might like it ("You like being dramatic and you like killing stuff! You would love it!"), I gathered a group of two to play D&D using the B/X rules (because it's what I am most familiar with). The other player had stopped playing around 1983 when his favorite character, in an effort to gain 5 XP, killed the Dungeon Maintenance Man, and was cursed to spend eternity fixing the doors that careless adventurers bashed in. He was excited to play again and rolled up an Elf named Kalek. Melissa, the GF, couldn't think of a name for her MU, so we just decided that she was going nameless as some mages do. I referred to her in the game as "She Who Walks With No Name".
Some highlights:
- The No Name MU looting some Kobold corpses while Kalek had his wounds tended to by a hireling. She found a quite a bit of gold. "Any loot No Name?" "Nope."
- When they arrived inside the dungeon, I advised them on marching order, using the 10 foot pole to avoid traps, etc. 5 real life minutes later, they were taunted by some goblins to run straight into a pit trap.
- Melissa totally got it about 20 minutes into play when she said "wait a minute....I can do whatever I want?!"
They ended up exploring a small portion of the dungeon but exploring it pretty thoroughly and making a detailed map. I spent a lot of time clarifying rules for Melissa. They ended the session after a brutal fight with some blind evil priests. It was a great first session in that both players had a blast and were eager to do it again (hopefully with more people).
The next group was a little more difficult as none of the 3 players had ever played an actual RPG before. I spent a lot of time explaining particular rules as well as making suggestions for how to approach things in the dungeon, so they didn't accomplish much in the way of dungeoneering, but here are some highlights of this session:
- One of the players insisted on playing a race of mushroom men. Since I didn't have any particular rules for one, we created one, and named the race Matangoes after the great Japanese movie, Matango. Matangos don't die from old age, they simply grow larger and larger. They are immune to the effects of deathly fungi and can communicate with Shriekers. He named him Bosch.
- Aurelian, the MU, rolled 3 (three!) crits almost in a row, annihilating some crab spiders the party faced. Boog, the Fighting-Woman, rolled 2 or more 1's, but I didn't treat them as fumbles. I didn't want Boog's player, Candace, to become discouraged during the first session.
- Aurelian ordered Absynth during the first part of the session (the stereotypical tavern meet-up) and for the first day and 1/2 was hallucinating and conversing with spirits. Unfortunately they weren't real spirits and he couldn't memorize any spells with the hangover he had.
- Bosch's player in his professional life works closely with animals and knows a great deal about them. He surmised that Bosch would know a lot about dungeon dwellers such as crab spiders and might know how to dissect them and extract their webbing. When I told him it would just stick to him, he said he would extract the pedipalp (the oil that male spiders use so they don't stick to the webs). I let him go with it because at this point he was starting to think like an experience RP-er and having a lot of fun.
This was the 2nd time I had DM-ed in quite some time, so I was a bit shaky on a few things. The players didn't quite grasp the exploration aspect of the game and anytime they saw a door immediately tried to open it and go forward. They ended up getting clobbered by some undead nasties that could've been easily avoided. The players had fun though, so I consider it a success. The player who ran Aurelian, Marc, has Asperger's Syndrome, and he had such a great time that I hope he continues to play.
