Keep your Shadowfell- A story (three) hours.
And so here we go with 4e, playing with the usual gang on a break from our normal campaign (the Goodman Gang), a week spent converting various maps et al from Keep on the Shadowfell into RPTools, our on-line tabletop gaming device of choice.
The players have had a week to browse their characters, read the rules booklet and get ready for the big day when 4e finally arrives…
And so after an hour or so of re-reading the rules, via Skype, making sure we’ve got everything clear we begin.
I’m not going to write this up like my other Story Hours for one simple reason, read on, you’ll see.
Encounter 1- Kobold’s in the road.
And so to the first encounter, my players play along, even though they know that the ambush is coming, they’re suddenly confronted with a map of a dirt track, their players on the road- what else could it be, as I say they play along.
And what do you know, a band of Kobold Brigands (actually Minions) leap out on them- gasps of surprise all round. The five Kobold Minions roll crap initiative and the players, bar one, get the drop on them.
And exactly six seconds later four of the five Minions are dead. Then from the bushes emerge a further two Kobolds- a Dragonshield and a Slinger- now that’s more like it.
Our Halfling Rogue is hit by a Firepot and goes all flamey for a moment. The Dragonborn Paladin and Dwarven Fighter tramp over to the Dragonshield Kobold and begin to hack chunks out of the thing, that is until the Paladin is glued to the spot, this time a Gluepot from the Kobold Slinger.
It doesn’t take long however, the Dragonshield proves a little pesky, he keeps backing away when the Fighter types get in range (rather adjacent), he’s soon cut down though- the artillery does much of the work- Magic Missiles and Holy Lances. The Halfling Rogue also manages to get his sneak attack in. The Slinger is likewise brought low- more missile and magic.
The fight lasts four rounds, twenty minutes of play.
The players are happy, content with their lot, although still very suspicious of their new skills, the Wizard is loving his spell capability, some of the others are not so sure.
It needs to be said that the Fighter, Paladin and the Rogue all use their Daily skills in the fight.
The Village- Winterhaven.
They head into the village of Winterhaven, discover everything that needs to be discovered, I’ve mixed up all three of the Hooks- with a tiny nudge they decide to head off to confront the Kobolds, to stop the predations of the Bandits on the old King’s Road.
The next day their on the trail again.
Encounter 2. Ambush-u-like.
The scenario calls for a Perception check DC25, am I missing something here, DC25- the character with the highest perception score, from memory, has +5- so they need to roll a natural 20 to avoid the surprise round. I abandon this idea, the players have already stated that they are wary- they expect another ambush. I reduce the Perception check to DC15, I’m a nice guy.
Nobody spots the ambush.
And out of the undergrowth come three Dragonshield Kobolds, and a Skirmisher that dances back into the undergrowth looking for a way round to the back of the PC group, away from the heavily armed and armoured warriors. And at the back the Kobold Wyrmpriest- looking all terrifying in his Dragon-mask.
The Dragonshield hit the Dwarven Fighter twice- the Priest is forced to get in with the healing. The Rogue soon after gets smashed by the Skirmisher, a critical, and enough to take the Halfling into negative Hit Points, he plays his Second Chance Encounter Power, and the re-roll comes up “20” again- some days. The Half-Elf Cleric intervenes and turns the critical into a normal hit- Armour of Bahamut.
One of the Dragonshield Kobolds is cut down.
Soon after, after the Dwarven Fighter and the Halfling Rogue have used their Action Points to get Second Winds, however the pair are cut down again- both onto negative Hit Points. The Half-Elf Priest is on his way and soon after has used up all of his Healing skills, abilities, the lot.
A round later and the Dwarf and the Halfling are back into negative Hit Points, it’s not working.
So we’re ten rounds in- two PCs down, no Healing Surges left (they are once/Encounter aren’t they), the Priest has used everything he has, but this is a Play Test, and only the second encounter- the players are not running, particularly as the bodies of their fallen comrades are still in the mix.
Of those left standing, the Wizard and Cleric are on full hit points, the Paladin has ten or so.
The bad guys- one Dragonshield is on full Hit Points, one is half-dead, one is dead. The Skirmisher is teetering on the brink and the Wyrmpriest hasn’t taken a hit, he also hasn’t been anywhere near the fight- content to fire Acid Orbs and Incite the attackers.
It all sloooooooows down, turns into a chess match.
The second Dragonshield gets dead.
Then the Skirmisher.
Mostly the Wizard and Cleric with the artillery.
The third Kobold Dragonshield is badly wounded.
Then the Dragonborn Paladin is reduced to negative Hit Points.
In the meantime the Half-Elf Priest has stabilised the Dwarven Fighter, and the Halfling Rogue has failed three saving throws and is really DEAD.
Which just leaves us with the spell casters versus one Dragonshield and the Wyrmpriest.
The Dragonshield takes a double whammy and hits the deck- phew, just the Wyrmpriest left, who fancies it and hops forward into the mix- which gets the players attention, the Cleric has to get close, his spells only have a range of 5 squares. By now the PCs on their feet are on low Hit Points.
Soon after they’re dead.
The Wyrmpriest has lost about a dozen Hit Points in total.
TPK.
Now let me provide some context, I have been playing and DMing D&D (and lots of other games) for twenty-six years, I’ve never had a TPK before, I know that makes me due one, it nearly happened with the Lost Boys (one of my other Story Hours). I’m a narrative sort of DM, I don’t punish players for trying something, I sometimes fudge dice rolls, although that’s hard to do using RPTools, all my rolls are Macros so the players can see what’s going on. I don’t fudge rolls often however, perhaps one/session- maximum.
We all read through the rules before hand, everyone around the table has at least one degree in something, so we’re not stupid, several of the players were tabletop players and wargamers previously. We’ve been playing on RPTools for a while now, so we’ve grown used to the system. The group have been playing together (most weeks) for the last four years, and I’ve been DMing some of them for… well, 26 years.
The session lasted nearly three hours in total-
20 minutes- for the first encounter.
40 minutes- in Winterhaven.
1 hour 45 minutes- for the second encounter, approx. 18 turns (I stopped counting at 15).
There were only two natural 20s all game, I got both of them- they were both cancelled out by players Skills (see above).
All the players used their Healing Surges, all the other healing available got used, all of the players used their Daily and Encounter skills up.
Otherwise my players didn’t roll low, I didn’t particularly roll high for the bad guys, my players didn’t do anything bad from a tactics point-of-view, except not take down the Wyrmpriest, but I played him hard to get, and put the Dragonshields in their way every time the players tried to get to him. The artillery had a go at him but they quickly had problems of their own.
My point is this, I’m really not convinced by 4e, I’m playing the same scenario again with my Whiterock group this Sunday, fingers crossed.
I’m not sold on it. As for my players then three of them have said that they would definitely not want to start a 4e campaign, and two of these have been through every version of D&D (and bought plenty of stuff along the way) with me.
I sent the rules booklet out to the next lot of players, one has already indicated that he doesn’t want to play a 4e campaign.
Any suggestions as to what we’re doing wrong? Any comments…
Cheers Paul
And so here we go with 4e, playing with the usual gang on a break from our normal campaign (the Goodman Gang), a week spent converting various maps et al from Keep on the Shadowfell into RPTools, our on-line tabletop gaming device of choice.
The players have had a week to browse their characters, read the rules booklet and get ready for the big day when 4e finally arrives…
And so after an hour or so of re-reading the rules, via Skype, making sure we’ve got everything clear we begin.
I’m not going to write this up like my other Story Hours for one simple reason, read on, you’ll see.
Encounter 1- Kobold’s in the road.
And so to the first encounter, my players play along, even though they know that the ambush is coming, they’re suddenly confronted with a map of a dirt track, their players on the road- what else could it be, as I say they play along.
And what do you know, a band of Kobold Brigands (actually Minions) leap out on them- gasps of surprise all round. The five Kobold Minions roll crap initiative and the players, bar one, get the drop on them.
And exactly six seconds later four of the five Minions are dead. Then from the bushes emerge a further two Kobolds- a Dragonshield and a Slinger- now that’s more like it.
Our Halfling Rogue is hit by a Firepot and goes all flamey for a moment. The Dragonborn Paladin and Dwarven Fighter tramp over to the Dragonshield Kobold and begin to hack chunks out of the thing, that is until the Paladin is glued to the spot, this time a Gluepot from the Kobold Slinger.
It doesn’t take long however, the Dragonshield proves a little pesky, he keeps backing away when the Fighter types get in range (rather adjacent), he’s soon cut down though- the artillery does much of the work- Magic Missiles and Holy Lances. The Halfling Rogue also manages to get his sneak attack in. The Slinger is likewise brought low- more missile and magic.
The fight lasts four rounds, twenty minutes of play.
The players are happy, content with their lot, although still very suspicious of their new skills, the Wizard is loving his spell capability, some of the others are not so sure.
It needs to be said that the Fighter, Paladin and the Rogue all use their Daily skills in the fight.
The Village- Winterhaven.
They head into the village of Winterhaven, discover everything that needs to be discovered, I’ve mixed up all three of the Hooks- with a tiny nudge they decide to head off to confront the Kobolds, to stop the predations of the Bandits on the old King’s Road.
The next day their on the trail again.
Encounter 2. Ambush-u-like.
The scenario calls for a Perception check DC25, am I missing something here, DC25- the character with the highest perception score, from memory, has +5- so they need to roll a natural 20 to avoid the surprise round. I abandon this idea, the players have already stated that they are wary- they expect another ambush. I reduce the Perception check to DC15, I’m a nice guy.
Nobody spots the ambush.
And out of the undergrowth come three Dragonshield Kobolds, and a Skirmisher that dances back into the undergrowth looking for a way round to the back of the PC group, away from the heavily armed and armoured warriors. And at the back the Kobold Wyrmpriest- looking all terrifying in his Dragon-mask.
The Dragonshield hit the Dwarven Fighter twice- the Priest is forced to get in with the healing. The Rogue soon after gets smashed by the Skirmisher, a critical, and enough to take the Halfling into negative Hit Points, he plays his Second Chance Encounter Power, and the re-roll comes up “20” again- some days. The Half-Elf Cleric intervenes and turns the critical into a normal hit- Armour of Bahamut.
One of the Dragonshield Kobolds is cut down.
Soon after, after the Dwarven Fighter and the Halfling Rogue have used their Action Points to get Second Winds, however the pair are cut down again- both onto negative Hit Points. The Half-Elf Priest is on his way and soon after has used up all of his Healing skills, abilities, the lot.
A round later and the Dwarf and the Halfling are back into negative Hit Points, it’s not working.
So we’re ten rounds in- two PCs down, no Healing Surges left (they are once/Encounter aren’t they), the Priest has used everything he has, but this is a Play Test, and only the second encounter- the players are not running, particularly as the bodies of their fallen comrades are still in the mix.
Of those left standing, the Wizard and Cleric are on full hit points, the Paladin has ten or so.
The bad guys- one Dragonshield is on full Hit Points, one is half-dead, one is dead. The Skirmisher is teetering on the brink and the Wyrmpriest hasn’t taken a hit, he also hasn’t been anywhere near the fight- content to fire Acid Orbs and Incite the attackers.
It all sloooooooows down, turns into a chess match.
The second Dragonshield gets dead.
Then the Skirmisher.
Mostly the Wizard and Cleric with the artillery.
The third Kobold Dragonshield is badly wounded.
Then the Dragonborn Paladin is reduced to negative Hit Points.
In the meantime the Half-Elf Priest has stabilised the Dwarven Fighter, and the Halfling Rogue has failed three saving throws and is really DEAD.
Which just leaves us with the spell casters versus one Dragonshield and the Wyrmpriest.
The Dragonshield takes a double whammy and hits the deck- phew, just the Wyrmpriest left, who fancies it and hops forward into the mix- which gets the players attention, the Cleric has to get close, his spells only have a range of 5 squares. By now the PCs on their feet are on low Hit Points.
Soon after they’re dead.
The Wyrmpriest has lost about a dozen Hit Points in total.
TPK.
Now let me provide some context, I have been playing and DMing D&D (and lots of other games) for twenty-six years, I’ve never had a TPK before, I know that makes me due one, it nearly happened with the Lost Boys (one of my other Story Hours). I’m a narrative sort of DM, I don’t punish players for trying something, I sometimes fudge dice rolls, although that’s hard to do using RPTools, all my rolls are Macros so the players can see what’s going on. I don’t fudge rolls often however, perhaps one/session- maximum.
We all read through the rules before hand, everyone around the table has at least one degree in something, so we’re not stupid, several of the players were tabletop players and wargamers previously. We’ve been playing on RPTools for a while now, so we’ve grown used to the system. The group have been playing together (most weeks) for the last four years, and I’ve been DMing some of them for… well, 26 years.
The session lasted nearly three hours in total-
20 minutes- for the first encounter.
40 minutes- in Winterhaven.
1 hour 45 minutes- for the second encounter, approx. 18 turns (I stopped counting at 15).
There were only two natural 20s all game, I got both of them- they were both cancelled out by players Skills (see above).
All the players used their Healing Surges, all the other healing available got used, all of the players used their Daily and Encounter skills up.
Otherwise my players didn’t roll low, I didn’t particularly roll high for the bad guys, my players didn’t do anything bad from a tactics point-of-view, except not take down the Wyrmpriest, but I played him hard to get, and put the Dragonshields in their way every time the players tried to get to him. The artillery had a go at him but they quickly had problems of their own.
My point is this, I’m really not convinced by 4e, I’m playing the same scenario again with my Whiterock group this Sunday, fingers crossed.
I’m not sold on it. As for my players then three of them have said that they would definitely not want to start a 4e campaign, and two of these have been through every version of D&D (and bought plenty of stuff along the way) with me.
I sent the rules booklet out to the next lot of players, one has already indicated that he doesn’t want to play a 4e campaign.
Any suggestions as to what we’re doing wrong? Any comments…
Cheers Paul
