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<blockquote data-quote="mattcolville" data-source="post: 6176961" data-attributes="member: 1300"><p>First session went well!</p><p></p><p>The players made dudes in about 10 minutes. It was easy. Everyone rolled 4d6, drop one, in order and we got:</p><p></p><p>A Hill Dwarf Barbarian Guide. I think his lowest stat was a 15. He had two 18s and like three 17s. He lived!</p><p></p><p>A Human Rogue Commoner. I believe his highest stat was a 15. He also lived! Dragging the unconscious dwarf to safety!</p><p></p><p>An Woof-elf Druid Spy. He...did not live. </p><p></p><p>A Human Cleric Noble, captured by the slavers!</p><p></p><p>A Half-elf Paladin Noble, also captured by the slavers! I believe his highest stat was a 12. </p><p></p><p>The players found the rules straightforward. The rules got out of the way and let people scheme and roleplay which was nice. Having everything just be Stat Rolls was nice. No skills or anything. Again, it felt simpler than either 3.x or 4, and I again draw the analogy of "2E if it were made today."</p><p></p><p>SPOILER FILLED RECAP</p><p></p><p>Guests of Sir Estelrath, Lord of the port town of Rayk, the two itinerant noblemen are told about the problems at the local quarry. Just as Sir Estelrath began to suspect Bazili Erak, the dwarf overseer of the quarry, of being involved in the local disappearances, Erak arrived in Rayk with a batch of slavers he captured operating in the woods near the quarry.</p><p></p><p>This was a bit too convenient for Sir Estelrath, and word of a third, never-seen, shift of dwarves working the quarry at midnight was suspicious. Many of the townspeople worked the quarry, why did none of them ever see these dwarves? What did Bazili find, deep below the quarry that prompted him to call for his kinsmen to come work the quarry at night?</p><p></p><p>The two noble adventurers agree to investigate.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the local Druid sends his apprentice in to town to look for stalwart allies who can aid in uncovering the cause of the recent--surely unrelated--attacks on local dockworkers and fishermen. The victims all attacked near the water, covered in what appear to be shark-bites...and also claw marks! The attacks seem centered near the mouth of the river Pest, where it joins the sea, where the town of Rayk was founded.</p><p></p><p>The noblemen and the druid join forces agreeing to help each other in turn. They recruit a doughty dwarf and a human commoner who has worked the quarry.</p><p></p><p>The five adventurers set off!</p><p></p><p>The Human Rogue Commoner knows the layout of the quarry, including the Guardhouse Bazili built and the first level of the mine where men dig the granite Bazili sells. But he has never seen the mysterious third shift of dwarves. So, on his advice, the party arrives early in the morning, hiding in the hills surrounding the quarry. They wait and watch for shift change.</p><p></p><p>Eventually they see some small armored creatures with tools emerge from the mine and cross the excavation to the guardhouse's lower entrance. The party asks the Dwarf "Those looks like dwarves to you?" He rolls like a 3 on his Wisdom check. "Yep!" he says. "They're certainly dwarves!"</p><p></p><p>The druid has a disguise kit, and the Human Rogue Commoner is literally someone who's worked the quarry, so the team decides to disguise themselves as rude mechanicals and infiltrate the quarry on the next shift.</p><p></p><p>The Druid's diguise kit requires a Charisma check which, at 22, meant there was literally no way the guards could tell they were anything other than normal workers. Part one of their plan, successful!</p><p></p><p>Once inside the mine, however, they had no plan other than "wander around and look for the lower levels." This turned out to be not immediately possible because guards watch them work and tell them to quit <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />ing around.</p><p></p><p>This frustrated the players and their characters probably spent an hour or two actually digging granite debating what to do in those moments their overseers couldn't hear them.</p><p></p><p>Among the popular options were:</p><p></p><p>* Druid cast Charm Person on the guard.</p><p>* Kill the guard.</p><p>* Have the dwarf say "I left my tools in the lower level." Which, at this point, seemed possible because I think the players actually thought the creatures who worked the midnight shift in the lower levels were dwarves.</p><p>* Have the thief try and distract the guard by offering to sell him some loaded dice.</p><p>* Thief and Dwarf get in a fight, the rest slip by while the guard breaks it up.</p><p></p><p>After much debate, the team goes with the last option. The thief's charisma score is so low, attempting to distract the guard with a bribe or something would almost certainly fail.</p><p></p><p>The fight between the Human Rogue and the Dwarf Barbarian is a successful distraction! I rolled 1d4 damage (1) and told the two players that was how much damage the accidentally inflicted in the fight, but they could assign it however they wanted, so the Dwarf took the 1hp damage. </p><p></p><p>The Druid, Paladin, and Cleric slip past and head down to the lower-level, which no human worker has seen.</p><p></p><p>Down there, it's dark. There are no torches, only glowing fungi, and the human has trouble seeing so he casts Light. They begin exploring and quickly find 6 goblins digging!</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the dwarf upstairs tries to bluff his way past the guard, by pointing out that he is an actual dwarf and therefore it's ok for him to go down to the lower levels where the "dwarves" dig.</p><p></p><p>The guard smiles at this and realizes the Dwarf is up to no good, because there ARE no dwarves at the Quarry, only disguised goblins!</p><p></p><p>Before he can call for help, the Dwarf kicks him in the nuts and the Thief punches him. This does not fell the human guard, however, and he does call for help and get a couple of swings in before his friend, the other guard, comes to see what all the hubbub's about.</p><p></p><p>Seeing his friend engaged with a dwarf and a human, he runs to go get more help. "Great," the players think. "The patented Colville Screw," whereby alerted guards never join the fray, they first get all their buddies from all the other encounters. </p><p></p><p>The dwarf and thief knock the guard out, tie him up, and drag him downstairs, joining their friends. After a moment separated, the party is now together.</p><p></p><p>They fight the goblins, easy. But the noise brings two Human Clerics and four Goblins to investigate and now <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> gets serious because the two human clerics are AC: 18 (chain and shield) and third level, so they have 2nd level spells like Spiritual Weapon.</p><p></p><p>Spiritual Weapon plus AC:18 plus 10 goblins was bad enough. The goblins all turned out to be one-hit bad guys, so they weren't a problem, but the clerics turned out to be really hard to hit mostly because of bad rolling.</p><p></p><p>Then three guards from upstairs joined the fray and now the players basically knew it was over. </p><p></p><p>They almost made it though! The dwarf went down three times, two Cure Wounds spells and one Lay On Hands kept bringing him back. Stupidly, he didn't rage until the very end and that basically cost them the battle, given how close it was. </p><p></p><p>The druid was actually killed outright.</p><p></p><p>In the end, they got all the goblins, one of the clerics, and all three guards before the Thief had to run. </p><p></p><p>The cleric went and got two Bugbears to help tie up the unconscious party and prepare them for their new lives as slaves.</p><p></p><p>The thief watched the Cleric leave. Then he snuck down and grabbed the unconscious dwarf and dragged him back upstairs before the cleric could return with his bugbears. I failed to have the Cleric check to notice the missing dwarf. Just thought of it now. </p><p></p><p>The thief drags the dwarf up to the top level of the mine where he tells the other workers about what they found deep in the mine.</p><p></p><p>Normally these guys would be "<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> off, we're working," but the thief is a Commoner and has Salt of the Earth, so the workers believe him and agree to hide the unconscious dwarf and get him to safety.</p><p></p><p>The druid player, who is like 17 years old, son of another player, never played any RPG before, rolls up another dude. A monk!</p><p></p><p>Well, in the actual adventure, the party's patron had sent his own agent, a Monk, down to the quarry. But if the players never inquire about other attempt to find out what's going on, he doesn't mention him.</p><p></p><p>So I ruled that, since we had a new Monk, it was that Monk. Infiltrated the "dwarf" Bazili's operation as a slave, but able to pick the lock on his manacles and escape whenever he wants.</p><p></p><p>A few hours after coming to, the captured heroes are greeted by the Monk who explains who he is, they work for the same dude, he can show them the way out...but they have no gear and there's a Bugear guard and four goblins on the way out.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the Dwarf and the Thief are back in town, recuperating, spreading the word about what's really going on at the mine (goblins! Clerics of the Elemental Eye!)</p><p></p><p>At this point, I had to go, so we left it there. </p><p></p><p>My Notes</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure why, the adventure is straightforward, but I found "A local lord hires you to go investigate..." was a weak lead-in. I guess I felt there wasn't really enough going on to warrant the Lord's interference? I dunno, maybe I missed something. Once I had the local lord invite the "visiting noblemen" to dinner, everything was fine, but it took me a few minutes to get there and I wasn't particularly excited by it. There wasn't an "Ooh, I can't wait!" on my part, and as the GM that's a problem. It felt more like work. "Ok, how do I get things rolling?" </p><p></p><p>My players VERY TYPICALLY managed to get themselves quite deep into the dungeon/adventure by a combination of luck and guile and when that ran out, they found they had gotten in WAY over their heads.</p><p></p><p>The adventure is dynamic with lots of ways in, lots of things to do, different shifts layed out. There's seriously like 6 or 8 different ways you can approach this. Both literally as in entrances, and metaphorically as in difference ruses used to gain entrance.</p><p></p><p>But that comes with a price which is complex text. Not a problem so much with a PDF you can search, but there is no PDF of Danger at Darkshelf Quarry so even though I was SURE I read something about what the guard do if ______, I couldn't find it when I needed it.</p><p></p><p>I wasn't sure what was 'supposed' to happen if the party tried to infiltrate as common workers, but I felt confident in my solution. High Charisma Druid, Disguise Kit, actual Commoner in the party who'd worked the mines, it seemed like a good plan to me, and given their rolls, I felt no reason it wouldn't succeed. And, as I mention, all success means in this instance is; they got further into the fire....</p><p></p><p>Everyone had a good time, making dudes was very easy thanks to the edits I made, and the game ran fine. We play on a grid, so I gave Advantage when flanking, but that mostly only helped the bad guys. The Cleric had Burning Hands as a Domain Spell, but he never cast it and I don't know why. The dwarf didn't rage until the very end. He was so happy with his RIDICULOUS stats, I don't think he bothered to even look at his other <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> until it was too late. </p><p></p><p>Now half the party is captured, there's a way out, but it's dangerous, and the other half of the party is back in town licking their wounds. Smells like D&D!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mattcolville, post: 6176961, member: 1300"] First session went well! The players made dudes in about 10 minutes. It was easy. Everyone rolled 4d6, drop one, in order and we got: A Hill Dwarf Barbarian Guide. I think his lowest stat was a 15. He had two 18s and like three 17s. He lived! A Human Rogue Commoner. I believe his highest stat was a 15. He also lived! Dragging the unconscious dwarf to safety! An Woof-elf Druid Spy. He...did not live. A Human Cleric Noble, captured by the slavers! A Half-elf Paladin Noble, also captured by the slavers! I believe his highest stat was a 12. The players found the rules straightforward. The rules got out of the way and let people scheme and roleplay which was nice. Having everything just be Stat Rolls was nice. No skills or anything. Again, it felt simpler than either 3.x or 4, and I again draw the analogy of "2E if it were made today." SPOILER FILLED RECAP Guests of Sir Estelrath, Lord of the port town of Rayk, the two itinerant noblemen are told about the problems at the local quarry. Just as Sir Estelrath began to suspect Bazili Erak, the dwarf overseer of the quarry, of being involved in the local disappearances, Erak arrived in Rayk with a batch of slavers he captured operating in the woods near the quarry. This was a bit too convenient for Sir Estelrath, and word of a third, never-seen, shift of dwarves working the quarry at midnight was suspicious. Many of the townspeople worked the quarry, why did none of them ever see these dwarves? What did Bazili find, deep below the quarry that prompted him to call for his kinsmen to come work the quarry at night? The two noble adventurers agree to investigate. Meanwhile the local Druid sends his apprentice in to town to look for stalwart allies who can aid in uncovering the cause of the recent--surely unrelated--attacks on local dockworkers and fishermen. The victims all attacked near the water, covered in what appear to be shark-bites...and also claw marks! The attacks seem centered near the mouth of the river Pest, where it joins the sea, where the town of Rayk was founded. The noblemen and the druid join forces agreeing to help each other in turn. They recruit a doughty dwarf and a human commoner who has worked the quarry. The five adventurers set off! The Human Rogue Commoner knows the layout of the quarry, including the Guardhouse Bazili built and the first level of the mine where men dig the granite Bazili sells. But he has never seen the mysterious third shift of dwarves. So, on his advice, the party arrives early in the morning, hiding in the hills surrounding the quarry. They wait and watch for shift change. Eventually they see some small armored creatures with tools emerge from the mine and cross the excavation to the guardhouse's lower entrance. The party asks the Dwarf "Those looks like dwarves to you?" He rolls like a 3 on his Wisdom check. "Yep!" he says. "They're certainly dwarves!" The druid has a disguise kit, and the Human Rogue Commoner is literally someone who's worked the quarry, so the team decides to disguise themselves as rude mechanicals and infiltrate the quarry on the next shift. The Druid's diguise kit requires a Charisma check which, at 22, meant there was literally no way the guards could tell they were anything other than normal workers. Part one of their plan, successful! Once inside the mine, however, they had no plan other than "wander around and look for the lower levels." This turned out to be not immediately possible because guards watch them work and tell them to quit :):):):)ing around. This frustrated the players and their characters probably spent an hour or two actually digging granite debating what to do in those moments their overseers couldn't hear them. Among the popular options were: * Druid cast Charm Person on the guard. * Kill the guard. * Have the dwarf say "I left my tools in the lower level." Which, at this point, seemed possible because I think the players actually thought the creatures who worked the midnight shift in the lower levels were dwarves. * Have the thief try and distract the guard by offering to sell him some loaded dice. * Thief and Dwarf get in a fight, the rest slip by while the guard breaks it up. After much debate, the team goes with the last option. The thief's charisma score is so low, attempting to distract the guard with a bribe or something would almost certainly fail. The fight between the Human Rogue and the Dwarf Barbarian is a successful distraction! I rolled 1d4 damage (1) and told the two players that was how much damage the accidentally inflicted in the fight, but they could assign it however they wanted, so the Dwarf took the 1hp damage. The Druid, Paladin, and Cleric slip past and head down to the lower-level, which no human worker has seen. Down there, it's dark. There are no torches, only glowing fungi, and the human has trouble seeing so he casts Light. They begin exploring and quickly find 6 goblins digging! Meanwhile the dwarf upstairs tries to bluff his way past the guard, by pointing out that he is an actual dwarf and therefore it's ok for him to go down to the lower levels where the "dwarves" dig. The guard smiles at this and realizes the Dwarf is up to no good, because there ARE no dwarves at the Quarry, only disguised goblins! Before he can call for help, the Dwarf kicks him in the nuts and the Thief punches him. This does not fell the human guard, however, and he does call for help and get a couple of swings in before his friend, the other guard, comes to see what all the hubbub's about. Seeing his friend engaged with a dwarf and a human, he runs to go get more help. "Great," the players think. "The patented Colville Screw," whereby alerted guards never join the fray, they first get all their buddies from all the other encounters. The dwarf and thief knock the guard out, tie him up, and drag him downstairs, joining their friends. After a moment separated, the party is now together. They fight the goblins, easy. But the noise brings two Human Clerics and four Goblins to investigate and now :):):):) gets serious because the two human clerics are AC: 18 (chain and shield) and third level, so they have 2nd level spells like Spiritual Weapon. Spiritual Weapon plus AC:18 plus 10 goblins was bad enough. The goblins all turned out to be one-hit bad guys, so they weren't a problem, but the clerics turned out to be really hard to hit mostly because of bad rolling. Then three guards from upstairs joined the fray and now the players basically knew it was over. They almost made it though! The dwarf went down three times, two Cure Wounds spells and one Lay On Hands kept bringing him back. Stupidly, he didn't rage until the very end and that basically cost them the battle, given how close it was. The druid was actually killed outright. In the end, they got all the goblins, one of the clerics, and all three guards before the Thief had to run. The cleric went and got two Bugbears to help tie up the unconscious party and prepare them for their new lives as slaves. The thief watched the Cleric leave. Then he snuck down and grabbed the unconscious dwarf and dragged him back upstairs before the cleric could return with his bugbears. I failed to have the Cleric check to notice the missing dwarf. Just thought of it now. The thief drags the dwarf up to the top level of the mine where he tells the other workers about what they found deep in the mine. Normally these guys would be ":):):):) off, we're working," but the thief is a Commoner and has Salt of the Earth, so the workers believe him and agree to hide the unconscious dwarf and get him to safety. The druid player, who is like 17 years old, son of another player, never played any RPG before, rolls up another dude. A monk! Well, in the actual adventure, the party's patron had sent his own agent, a Monk, down to the quarry. But if the players never inquire about other attempt to find out what's going on, he doesn't mention him. So I ruled that, since we had a new Monk, it was that Monk. Infiltrated the "dwarf" Bazili's operation as a slave, but able to pick the lock on his manacles and escape whenever he wants. A few hours after coming to, the captured heroes are greeted by the Monk who explains who he is, they work for the same dude, he can show them the way out...but they have no gear and there's a Bugear guard and four goblins on the way out. Meanwhile the Dwarf and the Thief are back in town, recuperating, spreading the word about what's really going on at the mine (goblins! Clerics of the Elemental Eye!) At this point, I had to go, so we left it there. My Notes I'm not sure why, the adventure is straightforward, but I found "A local lord hires you to go investigate..." was a weak lead-in. I guess I felt there wasn't really enough going on to warrant the Lord's interference? I dunno, maybe I missed something. Once I had the local lord invite the "visiting noblemen" to dinner, everything was fine, but it took me a few minutes to get there and I wasn't particularly excited by it. There wasn't an "Ooh, I can't wait!" on my part, and as the GM that's a problem. It felt more like work. "Ok, how do I get things rolling?" My players VERY TYPICALLY managed to get themselves quite deep into the dungeon/adventure by a combination of luck and guile and when that ran out, they found they had gotten in WAY over their heads. The adventure is dynamic with lots of ways in, lots of things to do, different shifts layed out. There's seriously like 6 or 8 different ways you can approach this. Both literally as in entrances, and metaphorically as in difference ruses used to gain entrance. But that comes with a price which is complex text. Not a problem so much with a PDF you can search, but there is no PDF of Danger at Darkshelf Quarry so even though I was SURE I read something about what the guard do if ______, I couldn't find it when I needed it. I wasn't sure what was 'supposed' to happen if the party tried to infiltrate as common workers, but I felt confident in my solution. High Charisma Druid, Disguise Kit, actual Commoner in the party who'd worked the mines, it seemed like a good plan to me, and given their rolls, I felt no reason it wouldn't succeed. And, as I mention, all success means in this instance is; they got further into the fire.... Everyone had a good time, making dudes was very easy thanks to the edits I made, and the game ran fine. We play on a grid, so I gave Advantage when flanking, but that mostly only helped the bad guys. The Cleric had Burning Hands as a Domain Spell, but he never cast it and I don't know why. The dwarf didn't rage until the very end. He was so happy with his RIDICULOUS stats, I don't think he bothered to even look at his other :):):):) until it was too late. Now half the party is captured, there's a way out, but it's dangerous, and the other half of the party is back in town licking their wounds. Smells like D&D! [/QUOTE]
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