Well, last weekend I played the first session of what I hope is a moderate-length D&D 4E campaign set in Eberron. It's only about my third session of 4E as a player, and the first two were on the D&D Game Days. So this was my first 4E session as a player with a character I created myself.
I'm playing a Kalastar Ardent, who I originally described as being "cynical and loyal", but I've been playing him as something like Marvin the Paranoid Android who becomes a berserker in combat. Well, at least a lot more animated and less depressed.
It was interesting seeing how the session ran. I really hate waiting for my action as a player. (One reason I mostly DM: I'm always doing stuff). I also hate it when my friends decide that teamwork isn't important and they can be glory hounds.
It's not like they're new to 4e, but they're playing melee characters for the first time. As a result, winning initiative means "charge into combat". Uh, no. Adam's barbarian almost managed to die that way, as the rest of us were penned in by the rest of the enemy and the biggest foes just took him down in a couple of rounds. He'd charged out of my healing range.
I feel that if he does it again next session, I'll wave goodbye to his character and lead the rest of the group out to safety. At least he has said "Oops" about what happened in the session...
Despite this lack of teamwork, what was really great was how interesting the combats were, despite them being at first level. There certainly was a great sense of danger. (It was also amusing to see Adam's Warforged Barbarian almost die because he couldn't make saves against ongoing poison damage
)
I'm going to have to work on the high-level campaigns that I've running: more danger, less duration would be good.
More on the session can be found here for those interested.
Cheers!
I'm playing a Kalastar Ardent, who I originally described as being "cynical and loyal", but I've been playing him as something like Marvin the Paranoid Android who becomes a berserker in combat. Well, at least a lot more animated and less depressed.
It was interesting seeing how the session ran. I really hate waiting for my action as a player. (One reason I mostly DM: I'm always doing stuff). I also hate it when my friends decide that teamwork isn't important and they can be glory hounds.
It's not like they're new to 4e, but they're playing melee characters for the first time. As a result, winning initiative means "charge into combat". Uh, no. Adam's barbarian almost managed to die that way, as the rest of us were penned in by the rest of the enemy and the biggest foes just took him down in a couple of rounds. He'd charged out of my healing range.
I feel that if he does it again next session, I'll wave goodbye to his character and lead the rest of the group out to safety. At least he has said "Oops" about what happened in the session...
Despite this lack of teamwork, what was really great was how interesting the combats were, despite them being at first level. There certainly was a great sense of danger. (It was also amusing to see Adam's Warforged Barbarian almost die because he couldn't make saves against ongoing poison damage
)I'm going to have to work on the high-level campaigns that I've running: more danger, less duration would be good.
More on the session can be found here for those interested.
Cheers!
