Dalamar
Adventurer
I had the chance to playtest the Next ruleset last monday as the DM. I had a full group of five, all with varying levels of experience with DnD and RPGs in general, ranging from one with more experience than me who started with Cyberpunk and AD&D2nd, to someone who only had a little almost freeform Call of Chthulhu before joining our current DnD 3.5 and 4e games.
To start with, all the players had some foreknowledge of the material in the playtest. I'd updated them intermittenly as new information had become available. I also advised those who had the time to check out the playtest package beforehand, but I believe only two of them did.
The divided up the pregens easily, most choosing to play the kind of character they usually play, though one specifically wanted to play a character different from what he usually plays (wanted the Cleric of Moradin instead of the Halfling Rogue).
After some brief brainstorming for personality and introducing the characters to each other, I set the group off in a village as a mercenary group looking for income.
And the first thing the party does is split.
While most of the party decided to head for the tavern as a classic spot to pick up adventure, the halfing went about to ask around for rumours. I let the player add their Folk Lore skill on the information gathering roll as he specifically said he wanted to ask the farmers. He learned that some humanoids had been harassing the people, and one farmer's field's had been completely ruined.
The group decided to head to the field and look for tracks. After a bit of looking, the Cleric of Pelor found enough evidence to tell which way the raiders went, thanks to his Wilderness Lore skill.
After a couple of hours of tracking into the night, the party arrives at the Caves. The Rogue heads out to peek into the first cave mouth (kobold lair), but fails to notice the sentries and almost gets crushed by a rock the sentries pushed down. The party Wizard decides to float a torch to the kobolds to at least partially negate their vision advantage while the Dwarven Fighter rapid fires his crossbow at the small critters as it would take him too long to scamper up the hill. He fluffs this as having several crossbow bolts strapped to his thigh that he pushes the crossbow against to cock and load it quickly. The kobolds are quickly mowed down, and the ones that attempt to escape are quickly shot down in the light of the flying torch.
They then entered the lair, and flubbed their checks to notice the pit trap, ending with both dwarves who had taken point ending in the pit. And quickly destroying the pit with a great Strength roll. With the party divided, I brought in a group of kobolds. Half the kobolds pelted any characters they saw with daggers, while another half was carrying boiling oil towards the pit.
After the two dwarves had climbed out of the pit, they were effectively blocking the the way to the kobolds, so the Halfling Rogue jumped on the back of the Fighter. I ruled that if he missed his climb check, he wouldn't get his action, but wouldn't fall without getting to a hazard failure.
At this point, the Fighter realized that his melee attacks automatically killed a kobold, so he got creative with his descriptions. Group favourite was bodyslamming a kobold into the boiling oil.
Last two kobolds retreated, and the Fighter threw a severed head after them, attempting Intimidate, but failed the roll so we concluded that the reptilian cowards didn't understand common.
At this point, the party decided to retreat a safe distance from the caves to rest up and wait for daylight. I thought about having their rest interrupted by a kobold scouting party, but since they mentioned getting good distance and not lighting a fire as counter measures, I just rolled the dice for show a couple of times. The Wizard noted that there was no mention of elf trance/meditation or such, and thus we assumed he'd have to sleep like everyone else.
The next day, the party returned to finish off the kobolds and the rats. The Wizard enjoyed racking up the kills on the rats with burning hands, especially since he could stay out of harm's way thanks to the split movement rule.
The players did note that the kobold chieftain had more hit points than the fighter, but it didn't overtly bother anybody.
The party went to the common room last. I described the kobolds there panicking, and I changed some of the normal kobolds there teenagers (no stat difference, just fluff). After a bit of thinking, the group agreed that they didn't want to finish off the kobolds since they weren't even 100% sure they were up to no good.
Next, the group closed on the beast den, and... decided it smelled too awful, so they skipped to the ogre lair. It took a moment for them to realize that the bear was dead instead of sleeping since the only one who looked inside was the Halfing who didn't have applicable skills.
A bit more reconnaisance, and the group decided they'd jump the ogre, confident they could take it. The Rogue would start off with a sling attack, and the others would then rush in. The Halfling's Lucky trait was the only thing that saved the initial attack, as even with advantage, it took both rerolls to land that attack.
The Cleric of Moradin's Defender feat proved mighty useful, stopping a critical hit and a normal hit on consecutive rounds. The characters expended most of their magic, but in the end they did manage to win.
And that's where we ended the session. All players agreed they wanted more, so we've got another game scheduled in two weeks' time.
Reception was good, and one of the players even said it was the best version of DnD he had played so far (previous experience in 3.0, 3.5 and 4e). The advantage/disadvantage mechanic received praise, as did the speed of play (the ogre fight took six or seven rounds, but lasted only 16 minutes).
The biggest complaint was some of the choices on the characters, especially the lack of Wisdom on the Halfling Rogue.
Overall, a positive experience. If things will only improve from here, we can expect a good game out of all this.
To start with, all the players had some foreknowledge of the material in the playtest. I'd updated them intermittenly as new information had become available. I also advised those who had the time to check out the playtest package beforehand, but I believe only two of them did.
The divided up the pregens easily, most choosing to play the kind of character they usually play, though one specifically wanted to play a character different from what he usually plays (wanted the Cleric of Moradin instead of the Halfling Rogue).
After some brief brainstorming for personality and introducing the characters to each other, I set the group off in a village as a mercenary group looking for income.
And the first thing the party does is split.
While most of the party decided to head for the tavern as a classic spot to pick up adventure, the halfing went about to ask around for rumours. I let the player add their Folk Lore skill on the information gathering roll as he specifically said he wanted to ask the farmers. He learned that some humanoids had been harassing the people, and one farmer's field's had been completely ruined.
The group decided to head to the field and look for tracks. After a bit of looking, the Cleric of Pelor found enough evidence to tell which way the raiders went, thanks to his Wilderness Lore skill.
After a couple of hours of tracking into the night, the party arrives at the Caves. The Rogue heads out to peek into the first cave mouth (kobold lair), but fails to notice the sentries and almost gets crushed by a rock the sentries pushed down. The party Wizard decides to float a torch to the kobolds to at least partially negate their vision advantage while the Dwarven Fighter rapid fires his crossbow at the small critters as it would take him too long to scamper up the hill. He fluffs this as having several crossbow bolts strapped to his thigh that he pushes the crossbow against to cock and load it quickly. The kobolds are quickly mowed down, and the ones that attempt to escape are quickly shot down in the light of the flying torch.
They then entered the lair, and flubbed their checks to notice the pit trap, ending with both dwarves who had taken point ending in the pit. And quickly destroying the pit with a great Strength roll. With the party divided, I brought in a group of kobolds. Half the kobolds pelted any characters they saw with daggers, while another half was carrying boiling oil towards the pit.
After the two dwarves had climbed out of the pit, they were effectively blocking the the way to the kobolds, so the Halfling Rogue jumped on the back of the Fighter. I ruled that if he missed his climb check, he wouldn't get his action, but wouldn't fall without getting to a hazard failure.
At this point, the Fighter realized that his melee attacks automatically killed a kobold, so he got creative with his descriptions. Group favourite was bodyslamming a kobold into the boiling oil.
Last two kobolds retreated, and the Fighter threw a severed head after them, attempting Intimidate, but failed the roll so we concluded that the reptilian cowards didn't understand common.
At this point, the party decided to retreat a safe distance from the caves to rest up and wait for daylight. I thought about having their rest interrupted by a kobold scouting party, but since they mentioned getting good distance and not lighting a fire as counter measures, I just rolled the dice for show a couple of times. The Wizard noted that there was no mention of elf trance/meditation or such, and thus we assumed he'd have to sleep like everyone else.
The next day, the party returned to finish off the kobolds and the rats. The Wizard enjoyed racking up the kills on the rats with burning hands, especially since he could stay out of harm's way thanks to the split movement rule.
The players did note that the kobold chieftain had more hit points than the fighter, but it didn't overtly bother anybody.
The party went to the common room last. I described the kobolds there panicking, and I changed some of the normal kobolds there teenagers (no stat difference, just fluff). After a bit of thinking, the group agreed that they didn't want to finish off the kobolds since they weren't even 100% sure they were up to no good.
Next, the group closed on the beast den, and... decided it smelled too awful, so they skipped to the ogre lair. It took a moment for them to realize that the bear was dead instead of sleeping since the only one who looked inside was the Halfing who didn't have applicable skills.
A bit more reconnaisance, and the group decided they'd jump the ogre, confident they could take it. The Rogue would start off with a sling attack, and the others would then rush in. The Halfling's Lucky trait was the only thing that saved the initial attack, as even with advantage, it took both rerolls to land that attack.
The Cleric of Moradin's Defender feat proved mighty useful, stopping a critical hit and a normal hit on consecutive rounds. The characters expended most of their magic, but in the end they did manage to win.
And that's where we ended the session. All players agreed they wanted more, so we've got another game scheduled in two weeks' time.
Reception was good, and one of the players even said it was the best version of DnD he had played so far (previous experience in 3.0, 3.5 and 4e). The advantage/disadvantage mechanic received praise, as did the speed of play (the ogre fight took six or seven rounds, but lasted only 16 minutes).
The biggest complaint was some of the choices on the characters, especially the lack of Wisdom on the Halfling Rogue.
Overall, a positive experience. If things will only improve from here, we can expect a good game out of all this.
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