Guyanthalas
First Post
I played a very short introductory quest with my co-workers the other day (none of whom had played before). It went very well, and I thought I'd post the experience in case anyone wanted to try something similar. I probably won't do something like this again (no real need at this point), but suggestions are always good to have listed, so comment away!
I'm very vocal about how much I enjoy playing D&D. Especially at work. What originally started as light-hearted hazing eventually evolved into questions (is it a video game? Board game? Card game?), and then into more specific interest. (Plan successful!). We often have potlucks, and due to my storytelling nature people started referring to a segment of the potluck as "Story-time with Guy". So I decided I'd change it up to a more "cooperative" version of story telling.
There are some challenges here, as we have about 15 people to deal with. A few made a quick exodus when I brought up the D&D idea, but since we had the food with us people floated in and out. 7-12 on average were in the room at a time. As many of you know, this is a hard number to play with. Also, since I knew people would flit in and out of the room I had to find a way to combat the scenes from breaking.
I decided that I would give them three characters total. a "Strong" (fighter) person, a thief (rogue) like person, and a magic user. I also set up a generic scene that would be relatively fantasy related. I borrowed a scene from the Night Angel trilogy, and had all three of the characters imprisoned in the Maw sentenced to death because they were in a plot to kill the king (potentially framed, up to them). The scenes were the initial prison break, sneaking out the back of the prison cave, fighting some spiders, and then a "wrap-up" conversation with a spirit at the end.
We went around the table, and the first question I asked was "give me a name for one of the characters". And in turn, the first three people at the table gave a name for the characters.
After the characters were named, the fourth person was allowed to control one of the characters. He had George try to bend the bars of his prison. I made them roll a d20 and give me the result. Low number, so I said "These specific bars didn't bend, but you might be able to find weaker ones if you look".
Next person in line was allowed one action as well, but had to pick a different character than George. (I locked the characters after use until all three were used).
Every time they did something that would require effort I had them roll dice. 10+ was a success. I also tried hard to "Fail forward", and give them the next best thing to try if it didn't work. They tried to tame the spiders, in which I made two people roll opposing checks (one for the character, and one for the spider). Whoever won the check decided what the spider did. This was great, because the spider won and the person playing the spider decided it was still going to kill the PC's anyway.
The rogue died (spider poison), but George and Sophia made it out alive. The spirit told them that she was the ghost of the dead queen, who the usurper king had killed. She beseeched them to avenge her legacy, and opened a door out of the prison, thus ending the session.
There were some problems that I just rolled with. One of the players said something to the effect of "I see the prison door keys outside my cell, and I'm going to grab them". It worked, but after the game was over I explained that stuff doesn't happen that way in real D&D. There was a lot of action happening between Characters that made them appear somewhat bi-polar, but it was cute.
Some players were totally not interested at all, and had the characters do mundane things ("Sophia decides to shave her legs"). I actually made her roll for it, and she rolled a 1. Sophia had terrible lacerations from a botched shaving accident. The women at the table thought it was hilarious, and started commenting on their own misfortunes.
The takeaway's were pretty good. Almost everyone agreed "it was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be". The creativity of the players was very inspiring indeed, and they came up with some interesting solutions to problems. (It became very clear who at the table reads mostly "romance" style of fantasy...). I'm not sure if anyone will want to do it for a hobby, but I think the seed of interest has been planted.
Team building exercise anyone?
I'm very vocal about how much I enjoy playing D&D. Especially at work. What originally started as light-hearted hazing eventually evolved into questions (is it a video game? Board game? Card game?), and then into more specific interest. (Plan successful!). We often have potlucks, and due to my storytelling nature people started referring to a segment of the potluck as "Story-time with Guy". So I decided I'd change it up to a more "cooperative" version of story telling.
There are some challenges here, as we have about 15 people to deal with. A few made a quick exodus when I brought up the D&D idea, but since we had the food with us people floated in and out. 7-12 on average were in the room at a time. As many of you know, this is a hard number to play with. Also, since I knew people would flit in and out of the room I had to find a way to combat the scenes from breaking.
I decided that I would give them three characters total. a "Strong" (fighter) person, a thief (rogue) like person, and a magic user. I also set up a generic scene that would be relatively fantasy related. I borrowed a scene from the Night Angel trilogy, and had all three of the characters imprisoned in the Maw sentenced to death because they were in a plot to kill the king (potentially framed, up to them). The scenes were the initial prison break, sneaking out the back of the prison cave, fighting some spiders, and then a "wrap-up" conversation with a spirit at the end.
We went around the table, and the first question I asked was "give me a name for one of the characters". And in turn, the first three people at the table gave a name for the characters.
After the characters were named, the fourth person was allowed to control one of the characters. He had George try to bend the bars of his prison. I made them roll a d20 and give me the result. Low number, so I said "These specific bars didn't bend, but you might be able to find weaker ones if you look".
Next person in line was allowed one action as well, but had to pick a different character than George. (I locked the characters after use until all three were used).
Every time they did something that would require effort I had them roll dice. 10+ was a success. I also tried hard to "Fail forward", and give them the next best thing to try if it didn't work. They tried to tame the spiders, in which I made two people roll opposing checks (one for the character, and one for the spider). Whoever won the check decided what the spider did. This was great, because the spider won and the person playing the spider decided it was still going to kill the PC's anyway.
The rogue died (spider poison), but George and Sophia made it out alive. The spirit told them that she was the ghost of the dead queen, who the usurper king had killed. She beseeched them to avenge her legacy, and opened a door out of the prison, thus ending the session.
There were some problems that I just rolled with. One of the players said something to the effect of "I see the prison door keys outside my cell, and I'm going to grab them". It worked, but after the game was over I explained that stuff doesn't happen that way in real D&D. There was a lot of action happening between Characters that made them appear somewhat bi-polar, but it was cute.
Some players were totally not interested at all, and had the characters do mundane things ("Sophia decides to shave her legs"). I actually made her roll for it, and she rolled a 1. Sophia had terrible lacerations from a botched shaving accident. The women at the table thought it was hilarious, and started commenting on their own misfortunes.
The takeaway's were pretty good. Almost everyone agreed "it was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be". The creativity of the players was very inspiring indeed, and they came up with some interesting solutions to problems. (It became very clear who at the table reads mostly "romance" style of fantasy...). I'm not sure if anyone will want to do it for a hobby, but I think the seed of interest has been planted.
Team building exercise anyone?
