My first D&D experience (tonight!)

[Anakin]

thanks for the feedback guys!

Yeah, I've been "investing" over the past year in a lot of the books. PHBx2, DMG, MM, OE, Creature Coll.1&2, Counter Coll 1 & 2, T&T, R&R, S&F, E&A, S&S, DotF, T&B, HBG, DM Screen, Adventure Game, the first 4 Freeport adventures, Sunless Citadel, Dungeon 87 & 88, Dragon 274, 282-293, Grimtooth's Traps Too, Lite, and Dungeon of Doom (just for fun).

Yeah, I'll prolly make a little story hour once the rest of my crew get together and we start playing. I figured we'd start by hitting some of the mini-encounters in the adventure game, then move on to Sunless Citadel, Freeport, or Valley of Snails. Or even Burning Plague. All seem pretty good to start out with.

And I originally had him get 400 XP, but since he only got hit once, we decided to pare it down. And I guess we mis-read the treasure table (hey, it was like 1am)...we gave him 2d8x10 sp. Ah, well.

Yeah, it is pretty exciting. I mean, my crew's all in our mid-20's, college grads, intelligent, fans of sci-fi and fantasy, big gaming fans (I have over 2000 video games, over 100 board games, we played Magic like fiends back in college, etc), but we've just never played AD&D before. So we're pretty psyched.

Thanks guys....we're gonna try to get all my crew (2-3 more guys) together and play some tomorrow...hopefully I can make a little story hour thread...

 

[mmu1]

Congratulations. I do feel obliged to point out, though, that COncentration is not used to keep an ear out Definitely a good write-up, though.

 

[Anakin]

well, i figured he could hear the orc when he was in the room, and he could use his concentration to keep doing so while he quickly looted the room (for all of 20 seconds or so), and the orc went screaming down the hall (all of 30 feet)...so that's what we went with.

And the DM is always right (as long as the players are happy), right?

 

[nopantsyet]

The magic of the first D&D game.... very hard to recapture.

Isn't that the truth! My first game was a life altering experience...something new and wonderous opened up for me when I got that red box for Christmas and colored in the numbers on the dice with the white crayon. My first game I played a Dwarven Berserker named "Dragon Breath." Hey--I was 8! A family we were friends with played, so they came over and the dad DMed. I don't know if it was a module or his own creation, but it was a classic 1E dungeon crawl complete with kobolds, a gelatinous cube, magic pools, and more excitement than my 8-year old imagination had ever experienced.

It's was magical in a way I'm reminded of when I'm working on my campaign and my 18-month old son scampers up and steals my DMG and starts kissing the cover! (He's a bit wary of of PsiH, tho...) Guess I'm doing something right!

 

[Walter_J]

The magic of the first D&D game.... very hard to recapture.

I hear ya. Ya know, I think this is one of the coolest threads I've read in a while. I think sometimes those of us who have been playing for a while tend to get bogged down at times with this or that. Posts like this remind me why I've been playing RPG's for 20+ years.

Good job, Anakin. I'm dying to hear more!

Walter

 

[BMF]

Wow, you DO have a lot of books for someone who has not played very much.

You also have a real good grasp of the rules. I would just point out a few minor things.
1. Listen checks would probably have been better than Concentration checks to hear the orc.
2. You probably helped the player a lot by having the monsters bicker rather than press an organized attack. Or even an unorgainzed one. So toning down the award (coins, xp, etc.) was probably a good idea.
3. As someone else pointed out, tactical strategy is a careful art. Use readied actions and range weapons to maximize the monster's effectivness.

Having played a lot of magic, you will probably find everybody in your group picks up quickly on the ideas of combos and turns. 3e is similar to magic, in a subtle way that I've never been able to put my finger on. I've played DnD for almost 20 yerars. I only played magic 6 or 8 times. But I can clearly see the similarities between Magic and 3e.

Lastly, what I think makes DnD great is the spontaneity and creativity of it. You never know what will happen, and it is always interesting and challenging. Gaming is the coolest hobby in the world. I hope you and your players find countless hours of blood, disaster, complications, confusions, mishaps, narrow escapes and epic heroics.

 

[fenzer]

Nicely Done.

I enjoyed your story very much. I think that for a first time, you did very well. I admire your creativity and spontaneity. As far as the XP awards and gold go, that is up to you. If you both were happy with it then you were spot on.

I have been playing since about 1978 and my memories of my first encounter are a little dim but what I do remember was that my character, a fighter - still my favorited class, faught a wight and the whole time I had this picture of a huge floating ball of white light dancing around my character. It was not until later that I figured out he was an undead nasty humanoid. It didn't matter, I was hooked.

Now, I do most of the DMing and wish, from time to time, I could use the innocent creativity I read in your story. Thanks for the trip back and welcome to the great world of D&D.

 

[Hattersai]

Reminds me of the first time I played way back when...of course I am nearly 20 so not that far back.

Just two bored guys and too much imagination...o the memories.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

Heh! Sounds like you did a better job than we did, the first time I played.. the DM had us roll 20-siders for stats (just reroll 1-2 and 19-20!), and when rolling to hit we rolled three times and took the best number. So Merlin, Gandalf and Hercules (or was it He-Man?) all set off to the Keep on the Borderlands.. I remember chasing the orc chief through his secret door, but precious little else of the module. Then, though, after ol' B2, we all died in the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. I was a mighty 3rd level Magic-User, but somehow that just wasn't enough. I don't think we made it too far past the entry chamber. Hee hee, that was fun, though.

 

[SkeletonKey Ed]

What a great thread. My first character (1979) was a Dwarf named Ed. I had my chain mail disintegrated by a rust monster and I remember that there were kobolds. I don't remember a lot of detail but this thread has brought back quite a bit of nostalgia.

To be an 8 year old dwarf again...

Ed