DrSpunj
Explorer
Since I've been following this thread closely I thought I'd contribute my experience to date with the adventure. Thanks to Olgar for this fun 4E test run and everyone else in the thread for all their input.
Background: I played some AD&D in the 80s but didn't play consistently until 3E came out. I've played with a few different groups since then, anywhere from weekly to once a month, and for the last 3 years have been DMing a 3.5/AE/IH hybrid game once a month with a solid group of players of varying RPG experience. They haven't seen this yet as we're trying to wrap up our campaign from the last 2 years in the next few sessions.
Instead, I was asked to do a Q&A session for my son's homeschooling program organized by the community school district's homeschooling supervisor. That was on 3/4/08 (and yes, I did mention the passing of EGG to them!) and by the following week I had several parents and 6 homeschoolers who wanted me to run a few sessions for them to see if there was any long term interest.
4 girls, 2 boys; ages 12 x2, 13 x3 & 15; two of them are siblings, another two are fraternal twins, and all of them pal around with each other fairly frequently. None of them have any tabletop RPG experience though a few of them have played WoW and other computer and/or console RPG games of different types. At least one mother has some D&D experience and definitely plays some computer fantasy RPGs, but the other 3 parents I spoke with had very little idea about what RPGs or D&D specifically was all about.
Alright, with that out of the way:
We used all 6 PCs from WotC. I had printed out the Elf Rogue from the 4E forum as a backup but didn't end up needing it. We went over some basics one the character sheets but I made it clear I wanted them to mostly tell me what they wanted to try and do and I'd help them sort it if it was possible and how they might go about doing it.
We started in town with the basic backstory. I let them know the town would supply them with most any reasonable mundane supplies they might want but none of them came up with anything not already on the character sheets. The Ranger made a few Nature rolls to follow the not-really-concealed kobold tracks leading away towards the distant hills and off they went.
Because I wanted to break them in with a relatively straightforward encounter before they hit the kobold cave, I modified Olgar's adventure with a forest encounter on the way to the kobold cave. I took the Cavern Choker and reworked it a bit into what I named a "Creeping Willow" tree. Looking over the other monsters I changed it to a medium plant, dropped it's speed to 4 and gave it forest walk, maybe a few other minor changes but that's it; basically a trimmed down version of the Feygrove Choker as a tree. I also created Twig Blights (go Sunless Citadel!) based off the Human Guards (Soldier 1) with their Powerful Strikes described as being hit by the Twig Blight's club-like branches. So the encounter was one Level 4 Lurker (Creeping Willow) and 3 Level 1 Soldiers (Twig Blights).
The group chose to put the Ranger in back so they weren't ambushed from the rear, not sure why that was the common concern, but that left the Wizard (played by a 13 yo boy) in front which made the Creeping Willow happy with its Tentacle Claw and Choke after both he and the Fighter missed their Passive Perception checks against the Willow's Natural Camouflage and natural stealthiness in the woods.
I made it clear this was going to be the only encounter they had that "day" so they could go ahead and try their daily powers and use their action points if they wanted.
Round 1 (in no particular order): The young lady playing the Fighter (age 12) really quickly picked up on her role as tank and immediately got busy with 2 of the Twig Blights. The Paladin was played by the other boy in the group (also 12 yo) and he liked his Mark ability right away focusing on the remaining Twig Blight. The Warlock (15 yo girl) moved around to the side and blasted a TB while the Cleric (13 yo girl) healed the Wizard and the Ranger carefully shot the Creeping Willow (btw, I forgot the Body Shield ability this first round). The Wizard tried his Acid Arrow but missed and unfortunately felt a bit singled out here I think with him being the only taking any damage (and quite a lot of it!). The TBs hit the Fighter once and would have knocked her prone but for her Stand Your Ground ability but otherwise missed with their attacks.
Round 2: The Willow tree choked the Wizard some more, much to his and his companions chagrin. Between the Fighter's Cleave and the Warlock's Witchfire, the 2 TBs they were working on both turned into kindling. The Paladin's daily and Cleric took out the last TB (along with a Healing Word for the Wizard) while the Wizard felt helpless and used his Second Wind. That turned out to be a very smart move since the Ranger remembered to use her Hunter's Quarry on the only remaining enemy in sight (the Willow tree) and I remembered to use the Body Shield ability to interpose the Wizard. That was a very fun experience for everyone but the Wizard's player. They all thought I was cheating (but thought it was very cool!) a bit until I described better exactly what was happening with that ability and showed them the stat block. I think that's where they finally "got" that the game was a lot more than just rolling dice and comparing numbers. From that point on they were asking me more questions and really trying to mentally build the scene we were in. I don't think I was necessarily doing a better job building a scene from here on but they were definitely a lot more receptive on their end.
Round 3: The party is able to focus all their might on the Willow and take it out (mostly due to the Fighter's daily) before the Wizard died. There was much rejoicing.
They rested that night and I had them reach the kobold cave at about noon their 3rd day out from Oakhurst. One of them reasoned now they might be able to catch them all sleeping since the raids occurred at night implying they were nocturnal creatures (remember, none of them have any idea what a "kobold" is, and I didn't use the term until they entered the cave, described them and pulled out the minis).
They tried to sneak into the cave with the Ranger in front (they were a lot better about their marching order and even worked out some very basic tactics before entering the cave) but appropriately enough the Cleric & Paladin both rolled low on Stealth so Ichi-ichi was able to pull the alarm gong and set the caltrops as soon as the Ranger peaked around the cavern entrance. The party did choose to light a Sunrod and I think the Cleric was carrying it as the 4th or 5th in line. Note: I used exclusively Skeleton Key Games tiles for the entire cave setup, from the Passages, Caverns and Flooded Caves sets IIRC.
Round 1 (in no particular order): The Ranger couldn't see Ichi-ichi right away as she was focusing on the minions readying their spears around the fire pit. She carefully aimed at the nearest and killed it with high damage (they thought, I didn't explain about minions until after the battle). The Fighter was next and ran all the way into the cavern, stopping unknowingly just before a caltrop square. The Paladin did the same forming a two person wall as the Cleric brought in the sunrod, the Warlock came around and blasted another minion (again, rolled high damage, got high fives from her sister), and the Wizard came last and wanted to use his Sleep daily on the last couple kobolds but the party vetoed it once I reminded them there were several passages leading off in different directions; he missed with his Magic Missile. Ichi-ichi delayed until the minions moved up to take advantage of his Mob Attack and was able to stick it good to the Fighter. The two remaining minions both missed.
Round 2: The Ranger fey-stepped into the cavern to get a better bead on Ichi-ichi, but missed with the attack. The Fighter & Paladin together marked and killed both minions, with the Fighter's Cleave biting into Ichi-ichi. The Cleric swung at him with Priest's Shield I think but missed. The Warlock used Eyebite on Ichi-ichi for a bit more damage since she was closer than she wanted to the action. The Wizard maneuvered for a Magic Missile at Ichi-ichi and bloodied him. This caused him to call out to the minions entering from 1B as he fled/ran towards 1D.
Unfortunately our 3 hours was up at that point and we had to break off. We're trying to set up the next session for next week. I haven't looked through Reloaded yet, but I may extend the cavern complex to include some or all of those encounters if I can do so smoothly now that they've entered the place.
While I'm not sure what will happen to the group after we finish this adventure, as in, I don't know if I'll keep DMing them or not, nor whether they'll want to play more when 4E is officially out, I'm glad I did it to introduce them to D&D and RPGs in general. I think they were significantly more comfortable with their characters and abilities for the kobold battle than they were just picking up the basics during the forest encounter. Their "homework" between the first and second sessions is to be familiar with their character sheets and read through the Player's Quick Play Rules I grabbed from this forum. I'll try and post what happens with the next session if anyone's interested.
Background: I played some AD&D in the 80s but didn't play consistently until 3E came out. I've played with a few different groups since then, anywhere from weekly to once a month, and for the last 3 years have been DMing a 3.5/AE/IH hybrid game once a month with a solid group of players of varying RPG experience. They haven't seen this yet as we're trying to wrap up our campaign from the last 2 years in the next few sessions.
Instead, I was asked to do a Q&A session for my son's homeschooling program organized by the community school district's homeschooling supervisor. That was on 3/4/08 (and yes, I did mention the passing of EGG to them!) and by the following week I had several parents and 6 homeschoolers who wanted me to run a few sessions for them to see if there was any long term interest.
4 girls, 2 boys; ages 12 x2, 13 x3 & 15; two of them are siblings, another two are fraternal twins, and all of them pal around with each other fairly frequently. None of them have any tabletop RPG experience though a few of them have played WoW and other computer and/or console RPG games of different types. At least one mother has some D&D experience and definitely plays some computer fantasy RPGs, but the other 3 parents I spoke with had very little idea about what RPGs or D&D specifically was all about.
Alright, with that out of the way:
We used all 6 PCs from WotC. I had printed out the Elf Rogue from the 4E forum as a backup but didn't end up needing it. We went over some basics one the character sheets but I made it clear I wanted them to mostly tell me what they wanted to try and do and I'd help them sort it if it was possible and how they might go about doing it.
We started in town with the basic backstory. I let them know the town would supply them with most any reasonable mundane supplies they might want but none of them came up with anything not already on the character sheets. The Ranger made a few Nature rolls to follow the not-really-concealed kobold tracks leading away towards the distant hills and off they went.
Because I wanted to break them in with a relatively straightforward encounter before they hit the kobold cave, I modified Olgar's adventure with a forest encounter on the way to the kobold cave. I took the Cavern Choker and reworked it a bit into what I named a "Creeping Willow" tree. Looking over the other monsters I changed it to a medium plant, dropped it's speed to 4 and gave it forest walk, maybe a few other minor changes but that's it; basically a trimmed down version of the Feygrove Choker as a tree. I also created Twig Blights (go Sunless Citadel!) based off the Human Guards (Soldier 1) with their Powerful Strikes described as being hit by the Twig Blight's club-like branches. So the encounter was one Level 4 Lurker (Creeping Willow) and 3 Level 1 Soldiers (Twig Blights).
The group chose to put the Ranger in back so they weren't ambushed from the rear, not sure why that was the common concern, but that left the Wizard (played by a 13 yo boy) in front which made the Creeping Willow happy with its Tentacle Claw and Choke after both he and the Fighter missed their Passive Perception checks against the Willow's Natural Camouflage and natural stealthiness in the woods.
I made it clear this was going to be the only encounter they had that "day" so they could go ahead and try their daily powers and use their action points if they wanted.
Round 1 (in no particular order): The young lady playing the Fighter (age 12) really quickly picked up on her role as tank and immediately got busy with 2 of the Twig Blights. The Paladin was played by the other boy in the group (also 12 yo) and he liked his Mark ability right away focusing on the remaining Twig Blight. The Warlock (15 yo girl) moved around to the side and blasted a TB while the Cleric (13 yo girl) healed the Wizard and the Ranger carefully shot the Creeping Willow (btw, I forgot the Body Shield ability this first round). The Wizard tried his Acid Arrow but missed and unfortunately felt a bit singled out here I think with him being the only taking any damage (and quite a lot of it!). The TBs hit the Fighter once and would have knocked her prone but for her Stand Your Ground ability but otherwise missed with their attacks.
Round 2: The Willow tree choked the Wizard some more, much to his and his companions chagrin. Between the Fighter's Cleave and the Warlock's Witchfire, the 2 TBs they were working on both turned into kindling. The Paladin's daily and Cleric took out the last TB (along with a Healing Word for the Wizard) while the Wizard felt helpless and used his Second Wind. That turned out to be a very smart move since the Ranger remembered to use her Hunter's Quarry on the only remaining enemy in sight (the Willow tree) and I remembered to use the Body Shield ability to interpose the Wizard. That was a very fun experience for everyone but the Wizard's player. They all thought I was cheating (but thought it was very cool!) a bit until I described better exactly what was happening with that ability and showed them the stat block. I think that's where they finally "got" that the game was a lot more than just rolling dice and comparing numbers. From that point on they were asking me more questions and really trying to mentally build the scene we were in. I don't think I was necessarily doing a better job building a scene from here on but they were definitely a lot more receptive on their end.
Round 3: The party is able to focus all their might on the Willow and take it out (mostly due to the Fighter's daily) before the Wizard died. There was much rejoicing.
They rested that night and I had them reach the kobold cave at about noon their 3rd day out from Oakhurst. One of them reasoned now they might be able to catch them all sleeping since the raids occurred at night implying they were nocturnal creatures (remember, none of them have any idea what a "kobold" is, and I didn't use the term until they entered the cave, described them and pulled out the minis).
They tried to sneak into the cave with the Ranger in front (they were a lot better about their marching order and even worked out some very basic tactics before entering the cave) but appropriately enough the Cleric & Paladin both rolled low on Stealth so Ichi-ichi was able to pull the alarm gong and set the caltrops as soon as the Ranger peaked around the cavern entrance. The party did choose to light a Sunrod and I think the Cleric was carrying it as the 4th or 5th in line. Note: I used exclusively Skeleton Key Games tiles for the entire cave setup, from the Passages, Caverns and Flooded Caves sets IIRC.
Round 1 (in no particular order): The Ranger couldn't see Ichi-ichi right away as she was focusing on the minions readying their spears around the fire pit. She carefully aimed at the nearest and killed it with high damage (they thought, I didn't explain about minions until after the battle). The Fighter was next and ran all the way into the cavern, stopping unknowingly just before a caltrop square. The Paladin did the same forming a two person wall as the Cleric brought in the sunrod, the Warlock came around and blasted another minion (again, rolled high damage, got high fives from her sister), and the Wizard came last and wanted to use his Sleep daily on the last couple kobolds but the party vetoed it once I reminded them there were several passages leading off in different directions; he missed with his Magic Missile. Ichi-ichi delayed until the minions moved up to take advantage of his Mob Attack and was able to stick it good to the Fighter. The two remaining minions both missed.
Round 2: The Ranger fey-stepped into the cavern to get a better bead on Ichi-ichi, but missed with the attack. The Fighter & Paladin together marked and killed both minions, with the Fighter's Cleave biting into Ichi-ichi. The Cleric swung at him with Priest's Shield I think but missed. The Warlock used Eyebite on Ichi-ichi for a bit more damage since she was closer than she wanted to the action. The Wizard maneuvered for a Magic Missile at Ichi-ichi and bloodied him. This caused him to call out to the minions entering from 1B as he fled/ran towards 1D.
Unfortunately our 3 hours was up at that point and we had to break off. We're trying to set up the next session for next week. I haven't looked through Reloaded yet, but I may extend the cavern complex to include some or all of those encounters if I can do so smoothly now that they've entered the place.
While I'm not sure what will happen to the group after we finish this adventure, as in, I don't know if I'll keep DMing them or not, nor whether they'll want to play more when 4E is officially out, I'm glad I did it to introduce them to D&D and RPGs in general. I think they were significantly more comfortable with their characters and abilities for the kobold battle than they were just picking up the basics during the forest encounter. Their "homework" between the first and second sessions is to be familiar with their character sheets and read through the Player's Quick Play Rules I grabbed from this forum. I'll try and post what happens with the next session if anyone's interested.
