TheBlueKnight
Explorer
I apologize, this might be a longish story... Read at your own risk. 
So my sister's family came for a week long visit last week. I am relatively new to DMing, just a dozen or so sessions over the last few years. Previously I had run a group through The Twisting Halls (4E Red Box Set Adventure) and part of The Reavers of Harkenwold (4E Essentials DM Kit Adventure). I have also purchased the 5E books with the intention of running that system as well. Needless to say I have a small bookcase of D&D materials (books, box sets and board games) and space is at a premium in my condo so I have the D&D bookshelf in my front room.
With the expectation that my visiting family would see it I asked to my wife, "I wonder if they (my family) would want to play?" "Of course!", she replied but I wasn't so sure.
I then pondered which system to use, should they ask, "4E or 5E?" I reasoned that 4E might be easier to teach kids because of the "Power Cards" but I actually think 5E is simpler rules-wise and if they want to get into the game, there probably won't be much new 4E stuff published. I decided that, should they ask, we would try one of the D&D Adventure Board Games based on 4E to give them a "taste" of what it might be like.
One of the first thing out of my 11-year-old nephew's mouth upon entering was "Dungeons and Dragons? Can we play it?" Hehe. Come to find out my brother-in-law played D&D once as a young teen and wanted to play as well. And, my other sister's youngest daughter who had joined them wanted to try as well.
So Sunday afternoon my wife, 3 of our 7 visitors and I sat down to play Wrath of Ashardalon. It was sufficiently fun that they wanted to try the regular pencil & paper game. So Monday night we created characters and added an additional player when the 10 year old niece announced she wanted to try it as well. We spent an hour picking character options for the 5 players. We ended with Avinquin - Wood Elf Druid, Bob the Great - Dwarf Fighter, Lady Edith - Human Cleric, Adrian - Drow Rogue, and Thebith - Dragonborn Sorcerer.
I decided to just convert The Twisting Halls as I had experience with that adventure and not much confidence in preparing an unknown adventure on short notice for a system I had never DMed before.
Tuesday night rolls around we have a goblin ambushing a caravan and stealing a box, and then the adventurer's assaulting the lair entrance. It was fun and the board game had helped introduce concepts like HP, AC and attack rolls. I only nearly killed one of these fragile level 1 characters. The sorcerer decided he should head alone into the goblin lair entrance with just him and 6 goblins, so yeah... The rogue had even succesfully scouted inside and counted the goblins, hehe.
Comments after the first night include "That was fun!" and "Dad, we should buy this game!" (Not due to my DMing skills, I assure you.)
We played at least an hour every night that week, finishing up the adventure Friday night, the night before they left to return home.
With more professions that they needed to play more and wanted to get the game I was satisfied in my job well done passing the torch to the next generation. I explained that the basic rules are free online and we are scheduled to play tomorrow via Skype and Fantasy Grounds. I am going to run them through Lost Mine of Phandelver and I have both Tyranny of Dragons and Princes of the Apocalypse if we get past Phandelver.
And no, I didn't monopolize their time completely. They still managed to visit the tidepools and the aquarium, the giant trees, the beach, the city, and the beach again. It was super-fun for me to play with them and I hope our game added to their fun vacation.
Thanks for reading. Go forth and adventure!
So my sister's family came for a week long visit last week. I am relatively new to DMing, just a dozen or so sessions over the last few years. Previously I had run a group through The Twisting Halls (4E Red Box Set Adventure) and part of The Reavers of Harkenwold (4E Essentials DM Kit Adventure). I have also purchased the 5E books with the intention of running that system as well. Needless to say I have a small bookcase of D&D materials (books, box sets and board games) and space is at a premium in my condo so I have the D&D bookshelf in my front room.
With the expectation that my visiting family would see it I asked to my wife, "I wonder if they (my family) would want to play?" "Of course!", she replied but I wasn't so sure.
I then pondered which system to use, should they ask, "4E or 5E?" I reasoned that 4E might be easier to teach kids because of the "Power Cards" but I actually think 5E is simpler rules-wise and if they want to get into the game, there probably won't be much new 4E stuff published. I decided that, should they ask, we would try one of the D&D Adventure Board Games based on 4E to give them a "taste" of what it might be like.
One of the first thing out of my 11-year-old nephew's mouth upon entering was "Dungeons and Dragons? Can we play it?" Hehe. Come to find out my brother-in-law played D&D once as a young teen and wanted to play as well. And, my other sister's youngest daughter who had joined them wanted to try as well.
So Sunday afternoon my wife, 3 of our 7 visitors and I sat down to play Wrath of Ashardalon. It was sufficiently fun that they wanted to try the regular pencil & paper game. So Monday night we created characters and added an additional player when the 10 year old niece announced she wanted to try it as well. We spent an hour picking character options for the 5 players. We ended with Avinquin - Wood Elf Druid, Bob the Great - Dwarf Fighter, Lady Edith - Human Cleric, Adrian - Drow Rogue, and Thebith - Dragonborn Sorcerer.
I decided to just convert The Twisting Halls as I had experience with that adventure and not much confidence in preparing an unknown adventure on short notice for a system I had never DMed before.
Tuesday night rolls around we have a goblin ambushing a caravan and stealing a box, and then the adventurer's assaulting the lair entrance. It was fun and the board game had helped introduce concepts like HP, AC and attack rolls. I only nearly killed one of these fragile level 1 characters. The sorcerer decided he should head alone into the goblin lair entrance with just him and 6 goblins, so yeah... The rogue had even succesfully scouted inside and counted the goblins, hehe.
Comments after the first night include "That was fun!" and "Dad, we should buy this game!" (Not due to my DMing skills, I assure you.)
We played at least an hour every night that week, finishing up the adventure Friday night, the night before they left to return home.
With more professions that they needed to play more and wanted to get the game I was satisfied in my job well done passing the torch to the next generation. I explained that the basic rules are free online and we are scheduled to play tomorrow via Skype and Fantasy Grounds. I am going to run them through Lost Mine of Phandelver and I have both Tyranny of Dragons and Princes of the Apocalypse if we get past Phandelver.
And no, I didn't monopolize their time completely.
They still managed to visit the tidepools and the aquarium, the giant trees, the beach, the city, and the beach again. It was super-fun for me to play with them and I hope our game added to their fun vacation.Thanks for reading. Go forth and adventure!
