D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[O-Castitatis-Lilium]

It was fun, my players had a blast. I'm running Tyranny of Dragons right now and they are on the travel part now, going from Baldur's Gate towards Waterdeep. I was a little hesitant at first to run it because I had read a lot of people said ti was boring and just to skip it. Though I really didn't want to just hand-wave an entire chapter. I decided to dig into all my dad's old DnD Modules, along with my uncles' stuff and found that there were actually a lot more little towns that littered the road that they were traveling on. I did a bit of digging and built up the towns so that they had places to stock up, and even places to solve some simple quests to keep them occupied. I also made a random encounters table too that I roll on to have something happen once a day at least. I planned out when they would hit places and what towns had simple missions. It was actually a lot of fun. Though, they did point out that unfortunately with all my planning I forgot maps of these places lol. So I'm going to draw a few before our next session.

There was a ton of laughter, a ton of shenanigans, some stealth, some non-combat solving of issues, learning about the area, overall they had a really good time. I gave one of my players a homebrewed item that, while a little overpowered right now, will be a nice fall back to have in the future; that and it suits their personality quite a bit lol. They finally got to use it and they were ecstatic about it. I'm having a ton of fun running it and they are having a blast just running amuck and doing things how they want lol.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

My Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup campaign has concluded after 60 sessions. How did it go? Read on!

The three player characters started this final session at 12th level: Half-orc cavalier fighter, halfling swashbuckler rogue, and half-elf evoker wizard/grave cleric. With them was an NPC drow mage, the love interest of the evoker.

This session was focused fully on drawing from the Deck of Many Things. I really struggled with that. Was it better to have more action and conflict? Or to focus on the Deck and hope the drawing provided the necessary drama? I decided to go with the Deck.

The campaign premise was that the lost Vault of Tymora held a fortune gathered by a successful group of adventurers that had ultimately been destroyed by the Deck of Many Things. Over the course of the campaign, the characters gathered the scattered cards of the Deck. Now with the cards in their possession, they returned to the abandoned manor of the adventurers and descended beneath the manor to where the Temple of Tymora was located.

Awaiting them was the old woman who had hired them in the first session to find the first card. They finally realized she was the last survivor of the cursed adventurers. And she was addicted to drawing from the Deck. She pleaded with them for another chance to draw, and cackled and cursed with each card they drew.

The half-elf wizard drew first. The Flames. He was now hunted by a demon. I selected one that had appeared earlier in the campaign to menace him in the future.

The drow mage. The Euryale. A curse giving her -2 to all saving throws. Forever.

The rogue. The Fates. He now had the ability to rewrite reality. Once.

The fighter. The Key. A magic item. The player selected a weapon from a previous campaign--the Bow of Second Chances. Yeah, basically does what it says on the tin.

The wizard decided to draw again. The Sun. 50,000xp! And a wondrous item--Amulet of the Planes. What a turn in fortune!

Finally, the characters agreed to let the old woman draw a card. The Idiot. With perfect dramatic irony, she was reduced to a drooling, gibbering, mindless dolt.

With the cards drawn, the magical entrance to the Vault of Tymora opened. Inside was one million gold. To be split four ways. Not a bad way to end the campaign.

I granted the fighter and rogue 13th level. The half-elf ended as a wizard 11/cleric 5.

Inspired by the Lazy DM/Sly Flourish, I asked the players to narrate the conclusion to their character's story. The drow became the representative of the Arcane Brotherhood in Waterdeep. The wizard rebuilt his parents' arcane scriptorium and repaired his relations with the Blackstaff. The fighter started a warrior academy for orphans and such. The rogue transformed the Shadow Thieves into a vigilante group operating outside the law to protect the city and its citizens.

Final sessions always induce anxiety. It was a relief that it ended in such a dramatically satisfying way. This was a great campaign.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

The Twilight: 2000 campaign I've been a player in for the last 10 1/2 months finally ended in a zombie apocalypse. I am not joking. Apparently even post-apocalypses can have apocalypses. I really, really, really like the mechanics and the world of T2K. I could have kept playing for a long time. It was a gift to hand the reins over to someone else and get a break from being the GM. Next up...13th Age!

 

[Older Beholder]

Played another session of the OSE campaign.
It was mostly hex crawling, either no combat occurred or we did our best to avoid it.

In lieu of anything much happening, here’s a quick sketch I did of our party…
Halfling, Fighter, Assassin, Duergar, Half-elf

 

[Older Beholder]

In the other campaign I’m playing in (5E) we’d taken control of a castle after several sessions of combat, only to have an opposing force 10 times our number turn up and demand our surrender.
All out of spells and down to our last HPs we decided to escape (We‘re currently a long way from home and have no stake in this war we’ve found ourselves forced into).

It was a short session as the DM had left things a bit open in terms of not really knowing what we were going to do. I think us fleeing wasn’t something he’d planned for, so we finished up early.

We’re heading back to help a village of Tanuki (one of our PCs is a Tanuki, using shapeshifter as his species) that were displaced with the war kicking off. After that we’ll try to get back our homelands which will mean crossing a war torn land where we’re wanted by both sides of the conflict. Should be fun!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

This is the start of my 13th Age campaign! I'm the GM. 5 players. We'll be running Eyes of the Stone Thief, one of the best adventures ever written. Hopefully it plays as well as it reads.

We had our Session 0. Two of them, in fact. Character generation from a mechanical standpoint was fairly simple. But it took a long time to develop the backgrounds, icon relationships, and One Unique Thing. I thought the OUTs would be most difficult, but they came easily. It was the backgrounds that were challenging, because they simultaneously had to be backstory plus a broadly applicable skill. Getting that right is an art.

Below are the characters. If the players tweak anything, I'll update it here, too. This is a wild group of characters and I'm looking forward to seeing them in action!

Class: Swashbuckler (3rd party variant of the Rogue)
Race: Human
Background 1: +3 Raised as the one true Lord of Durhambrock, I can fit in with nobles across the Empire
Background 2: +3 Imprisoned for resisting the Emperor, I escaped and now stay one step ahead of the law
Background 3: +3 On the run, I became a sellsword who fought for the common people and asked for nothing in return
One Unique Thing: I am the only one to escape from New Port Imperial Prison
Positive Icon: Prince of Shadows
Negative Icon: Emperor

Class: Occultist
Race: Human
Background 1: +3 I am the child of arrogant wizards–but my powers have already surpassed theirs
Background 2: +3 I spent my childhood crisscrossing the royal courts of the Empire
Background 3: +3 greatest philosopher of the Age
One Unique Thing: I can rewrite reality and I am entitled to do so.
Positive Icon: Priestess
Negative Icon: Emperor

Class: Bard
Race: Wood Elf
Background 1: +3 I’ve hunted every animal in the Queen’s Wood
Background 2: +3 I lived on the streets and busked for years in Horizon
Background 3: +3 I romanced the Archmage’s daughter and wrote a song about it
One Unique Thing: I am the only person whose song is known across all the realms. I love the attention, but pretend not to.
Positive Icon: Elf Queen
Negative Icon: Archmage

Class: Savage (3rd party variant of the Barbarian)
Race: Minotaur
Background 1: +3 biggest minotaur anyone has ever seen
Background 2: +3 committed pacifist who lives in harmony with nature
Background 3 +3 Emperor’s favorite minotaur potter
One Unique Thing: Last surviving minotaur of my clan
Positive Icon: Priestess
Negative Icon: Overlord (my version of the Orc Lord)

Class: Chaos Mage
Race: Dark Elf
Background 1: +3 I spent decades studying magic under the Lich King, and stole power from him before fleeing for my homeland
Background 2: +3 I spent decades crafting poisons and potions in darkest depths of the Queen’s Wood
Background 3: +3 delver of the depths and sneaker of the shadows
One Unique Thing: My magical abilities were gained as a result of my lust for power. If I can’t learn to control my magic, it will destroy me–and everything around me.
Positive Icon: Elf Queen - Took me in as her agent after I stole from the Lich King
Negative Icon: Lich King - I stole a great deal of magic from him and have been on the run ever since

Finally, I've made some changes to the world, the icons, and the adventure itself. For example, in my world the gods are dead and the Priestess is a barefoot teenage girl who wanders the Empire making miracles. I'm calling the Stone Thief "The Devourer" and expanding the adventure to cover a full 1st - 10th level campaign.

Next session: Strangers at an inn...

 

[Quickleaf]

This is the start of my 13th Age campaign! I'm the GM. 5 players. We'll be running Eyes of the Stone Thief, one of the best adventures ever written. Hopefully it plays as well as it reads.

We had our Session 0. Two of them, in fact. Character generation from a mechanical standpoint was fairly simple. But it took a long time to develop the backgrounds, icon relationships, and One Unique Thing. I thought the OUTs would be most difficult, but they came easily. It was the backgrounds that were challenging, because they simultaneously had to be backstory plus a broadly applicable skill. Getting that right is an art.

Below are the characters. If the players tweak anything, I'll update it here, too. This is a wild group of characters and I'm looking forward to seeing them in action!

Class: Swashbuckler (3rd party variant of the Rogue)
Race: Human
Background 1: +3 Raised as the one true Lord of Durhambrock, I can fit in with nobles across the Empire
Background 2: +3 Imprisoned for resisting the Emperor, I escaped and now stay one step ahead of the law
Background 3: +3 On the run, I became a sellsword who fought for the common people and asked for nothing in return
One Unique Thing: I am the only one to escape from New Port Imperial Prison
Positive Icon: Prince of Shadows
Negative Icon: Emperor

Class: Occultist
Race: Human
Background 1: +3 I am the child of arrogant wizards–but my powers have already surpassed theirs
Background 2: +3 I spent my childhood crisscrossing the royal courts of the Empire
Background 3: +3 greatest philosopher of the Age
One Unique Thing: I can rewrite reality and I am entitled to do so.
Positive Icon: Priestess
Negative Icon: Emperor

Class: Bard
Race: Wood Elf
Background 1: +3 I’ve hunted every animal in the Queen’s Wood
Background 2: +3 I lived on the streets and busked for years in Horizon
Background 3: +3 I romanced the Archmage’s daughter and wrote a song about it
One Unique Thing: I am the only person whose song is known across all the realms. I love the attention, but pretend not to.
Positive Icon: Elf Queen
Negative Icon: Archmage

Class: Savage (3rd party variant of the Barbarian)
Race: Minotaur
Background 1: +3 biggest minotaur anyone has ever seen
Background 2: +3 committed pacifist who lives in harmony with nature
Background 3 +3 Emperor’s favorite minotaur potter
One Unique Thing: Last surviving minotaur of my clan
Positive Icon: Priestess
Negative Icon: Overlord (my version of the Orc Lord)

Class: Chaos Mage
Race: Dark Elf
Background 1: +3 I spent decades studying magic under the Lich King, and stole power from him before fleeing for my homeland
Background 2: +3 I spent decades crafting poisons and potions in darkest depths of the Queen’s Wood
Background 3: +3 delver of the depths and sneaker of the shadows
One Unique Thing: My magical abilities were gained as a result of my lust for power. If I can’t learn to control my magic, it will destroy me–and everything around me.
Positive Icon: Elf Queen - Took me in as her agent after I stole from the Lich King
Negative Icon: Lich King - I stole a great deal of magic from him and have been on the run ever since

Finally, I've made some changes to the world, the icons, and the adventure itself. For example, in my world the gods are dead and the Priestess is a barefoot teenage girl who wanders the Empire making miracles. I'm calling the Stone Thief "The Devourer" and expanding the adventure to cover a full 1st - 10th level campaign.

Next session: Strangers at an inn...

Love each of the characters' One Unique Things. Good times!

I've been playing in a friend's OSE (Old School Essentials) mini-campaign Secret of the Black Crag and we're in the final stretch. We killed a giant shark called "Old Red Eyes" with a laser beam on our submersible. Then we tried to enter the dreaded Black Crag, pushing through bad weather and difficult navigation only to be ambushed by giant crabs hiding in treasure chests. They severed our zombie-fied fighter's arm, we created a flaming oil screen to cover our retreat, and we returned to port with our pirate's hats between our legs.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 57 of my Neverwinter/Sword Coast campaign. 10th level drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin.

The characters are in the home village of the paladin, which is now under the control of a conspiracy of evil nobles in league with an orc horde.

Last session, the characters battled an evil mage and her bodyguard. This session started with 2 of 3 players down, as well as the mage. Only the paladin remained standing. The bodyguard acted first. He had the stats of a Githyanki Gish, which is a brutal CR10 foe. Yet, somehow, he missed all 3 attacks. The paladin, having cast Haste and Vow of Enmity, attacked 3 times with advantage. By the second smite it was all over.

To my chagrin. Because I was so confident the players would be defeated and their characters captured that I spent the last several weeks since last session retooling the entire campaign. Not a little. A lot. With that second smite, those plans went in the garbage.

The characters fled the village to rest and recover. Next, they decided to assault the orcs encamped outside of town. A couple dozen holed up in a ruined castle. (I'm using the first level of the Abomination Vaults from Pathfinder, which is a solid map.) The character are traveling by airship. Under cover of night they floated over the castle, then used dimension door to teleport to the very back of the castle. They entered an outbuilding that appeared abandoned. But in the second room they found a semi-fresh orc corpse. It looked like it died of fright. The paladin used his ability to detect undead to detect undead...all around them.

Next session: Wrath of the wraith!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 1 of my 13th Age campaign! Actually, we had two Session Zeros before this, but who's counting?

The Adventure: Eyes of the Stone Thief (retitled "The Devourer" for my campaign.) I've retooled the adventure so it spans levels 1 through 10.

The Characters: 1st Level. Human Occultist, Human Swashbuckler (third-party variant Rogue), Minotaur Savage (third-party variant Barbarian), Woold Elf Bard, Dark Elf Chaos Mage.

The Situation: The characters are strangers to each other. They're at inn in the hour before dawn in a frontier town called Hardcrag. Assassins--actually, local bandits--come in through windows and try to murder them in their beds. Well, except for the Swashbuckler, who's in the common room playing cards with three ne'er-do-wells...who are also bandit assassins. As the battle unfolds, the characters realize that each and every one of them is being intentionally targeted for assassination, although they have no idea why. When the last enemy falls, the characters hear someone outside the inn shout for them to throw down their weapons and come out -- or a captive townsfolk will be killed. So, yeah, there are even more bandits.

We wrapped there, as we'd gotten a late start due to character creation spilling over into the first hour.

How did it go? Pretty great. It took a while for the players to understand their powers. The Bard didn't realize his flexible attacks were a rider on a standard attack. The Savage didn't understand that a power wasn't in addition to a standard attack, but in place of. The Occultist struggled to figure out when and how to use their reaction-based spells. But once it all clicked into place and the Escalation die got up there...things started to pop off. The Savage shouted 3 mooks to death, literally killing them with a moo. The Bard saved the Chaos Mage from getting knocked out. The Occultist rewound time and changed reality, to the astonishment of all the other players. It was a wild experience for 1st level characters.

Quote of the night: "Every day is an adventure to discover just how amazing I am." Courtesy of the Occultist.

Next session: Street fight!

 

[Reynard]

We started a Fallout2d20 campaign on Roll20 last night. It was supposed to be Fantasy Grounds but one player couldn't get FG to work on his oldAF computer so we had to change venues on the fly. I am not nearly as proficient on Roll20 and I own everything on FG but whatchagonnado?

The session went well enough for figuring out the platform and the basic system. We are using the Starter Setadventure to kick off,with the intent of launching into Winter of the Atom after.