When I got home last night from the grocery store, I noticed that the dining room table had been completely cleared off. My 13 year old son had invited two friends over to spend the night and they wanted me to DM them an adventure. They had just rolled up fresh 4e characters and I was proudly told, "Dad, we're all EVIL!"
So with a couple of minutes to stew over that while I grabbed my bucket of minis and dice, I replied, "Well, obviously, you need a lair!" I plopped down the waterfall map from Keep on the Shadowfell and told them that the Baron's men were on their way to rid the world of the new evil menace.
Now my 9 year old daughter and almost 7 year old son come into the room saying, "We want to play too!" Seeing the good looking map and the minis and the dice, I can understand how irresistible it looked to them. So I grabbed the pre-generated characters from KotS and let them choose who to be. My daughter took the half-elf cleric and my son took the dragonborn paladin. His most favorite decision of the night was picking what type of breath weapon he had.
My decisions, however, were a little tougher. The PC party was 500xp, but I wanted this to be tougher since it was going to be a one shot battle. So I turned to the Humans section of the Monster Manual and put down a mage, 3 guards, a bandit and a few rabble minions on the map for 840xp.
The battle went surprisingly well. They did defeat the Baron's forces, but it was a very close fought fight. Several characters went down only to be revived by my daughter. She took great pride in being the one to save them. It was also fun to call out, "Well, now you're 1/3 dead," as they missed their death saving throws. "Now you're 2/3rd's dead!"
Things I really liked:
I could open the Monster Manual to one set of pages and run an hour and a half battle without having to flip the page. It's been years since I've been able to do that.
I could quickly generate an exciting encounter using the xp buy system.
Everyone had some way to contribute and to stay interested in the battle. I was a little surprised that the pre-teens were as focused as they were.
Things I need to tweak for next time:
I should make up cards for the different statuses. I was constantly going back to the PH looking up what Weakness does, or Dazed or Prone. I think I'll make cards for the statuses so each player will know what they can do when they're hit with them.
I was also constantly going back to the PH looking for the power descriptions. When my daughter would say, "I'll use Lance of Faith!" I was busy scrambling to figure out just what that does. I understand that with time I'll know a bunch of these, but it would be very handy to be able to generate a reference sheet for my use.
It was a fun evening and I was impressed that it came together so well with basically no preparation. I want these events to be something that my kids look back on fondly and I think this did the trick.
So with a couple of minutes to stew over that while I grabbed my bucket of minis and dice, I replied, "Well, obviously, you need a lair!" I plopped down the waterfall map from Keep on the Shadowfell and told them that the Baron's men were on their way to rid the world of the new evil menace.
Now my 9 year old daughter and almost 7 year old son come into the room saying, "We want to play too!" Seeing the good looking map and the minis and the dice, I can understand how irresistible it looked to them. So I grabbed the pre-generated characters from KotS and let them choose who to be. My daughter took the half-elf cleric and my son took the dragonborn paladin. His most favorite decision of the night was picking what type of breath weapon he had.
My decisions, however, were a little tougher. The PC party was 500xp, but I wanted this to be tougher since it was going to be a one shot battle. So I turned to the Humans section of the Monster Manual and put down a mage, 3 guards, a bandit and a few rabble minions on the map for 840xp.
The battle went surprisingly well. They did defeat the Baron's forces, but it was a very close fought fight. Several characters went down only to be revived by my daughter. She took great pride in being the one to save them. It was also fun to call out, "Well, now you're 1/3 dead," as they missed their death saving throws. "Now you're 2/3rd's dead!"
Things I really liked:
I could open the Monster Manual to one set of pages and run an hour and a half battle without having to flip the page. It's been years since I've been able to do that. I could quickly generate an exciting encounter using the xp buy system. Everyone had some way to contribute and to stay interested in the battle. I was a little surprised that the pre-teens were as focused as they were.Things I need to tweak for next time:
I should make up cards for the different statuses. I was constantly going back to the PH looking up what Weakness does, or Dazed or Prone. I think I'll make cards for the statuses so each player will know what they can do when they're hit with them. I was also constantly going back to the PH looking for the power descriptions. When my daughter would say, "I'll use Lance of Faith!" I was busy scrambling to figure out just what that does. I understand that with time I'll know a bunch of these, but it would be very handy to be able to generate a reference sheet for my use.It was a fun evening and I was impressed that it came together so well with basically no preparation. I want these events to be something that my kids look back on fondly and I think this did the trick.
