halfling rogue
Explorer
Prologue
This weekend I DM’d my first game ever. I haven’t played with my group in probably about 2 years. Families and kids, you know. The last edition we played was 4e. I purchased the Starter Set and we got the gang back together. I offered to DM (knowing that if I took the wheel then at least I’d get to play something!) plus I was the only one with the Lost Mine adventure. (Lost Mine Spoilers to follow)
I wanted to give a report of the night because I think it provides a unique perspective of experience and an insight into the playability/adaptability of 5e and Lost Mine. Ages ranged from 13-40s. Experience of players ranged from 1e to never played a tabletop RPG before.
As a new DM I wanted to know everything before starting my first game, especially who and how many were playing. Unfortunately I only had a vague idea until about 20 minutes before we started. But really this turned out to be an unnecessary thing to worry about. I just ran as is and fun was had by all.
Only two of us were “familiar” with 5e. I had the Starter Set Rules and Basic Rules. Our wizard had the PHB, but hadn’t delved into it much. Everyone else came in pretty much cold. One of our players even came with his 4e PHB and character not realizing we were playing a new edition (despite more than a few emails/texts prodding everyone to check the new Basic Rules). Another player brought along a kid (age 13 maybe?) who had never played before and wasn’t exactly sure what D&D was. Before I really dive into this and everyone thinks we went into this too sloppy (well , yeah we did, but we kind of couldn’t help it), I do want to point out that this group is really laid back. Everyone is really easy to work with and willing to make the game as best as possible and just have fun. There are no divas in the group. Otherwise, I could see how it might have been a train wreck.
Players/D&D Experience:
Human Wizard – the only newly created character of the party. A bit incomplete as he hadn’t selected a background yet. I gave him the wizard pregen from the Starter and told him to use the background/proficiencies from that sheet. His experience with D&D begins with 2e into 3.5 into 4. He is normally the DM of our group.
Human Fighter, Archer – from the pregen. He initially brought his beloved 4e Ranger and I offered the Archer centric Fighter for familiarity sake. He scanned his pregen sheet to find something similar to Hunter’s Quarry (I think that’s what it’s called) and I think was a little disappointed not to find something like that. However, when we started playing I think virtually every shot he took (due to awesome rolls) were instant kills, which made him pretty happy. The archer is his wheelhouse and this pregen satisfied. His d&d experience (like mine) is 3.5 and 4e
Dwarven Cleric – from the pregen. This was played by the guy who is normally our beefcake fighter. Big and brawny is his go-to character. I assumed he’d take the Fighter with the Greataxe. But interestingly he chose the cleric. To be honest, whether it is due to previous editions or whatever else, no one in our group has been fond of the cleric. No one ever wanted to be the cleric. So I was surprised at his choice. And after seeing him play the cleric, I actually began to think I’d like to play a cleric at some point. His experience is 3.5 and 4e.
Halfling Rogue 1 – Our most experienced player, he started back in the day and often entertains our group by telling tales about the days of D&D yore. He’s really been the one most of us learned from in this group, and has been really helpful in forming the way we all approach an adventure via combat or exploration, etc. He’s been there before and knows what to ask, look for, etc. This really has helped our group dive into the story where, without him I think a lot of our time would have been simply tactical combat chess.
Halfling Rogue 2 – played by a 13ish year old who was as unfamiliar with D&D as anyone could be. We gave him the crashiest of crash courses on what D&D is and what a player is expected to do and I think he maybe understood half of it. But he did get the concept of a role playing game. At first he wanted to play the Human Archer pregen, but then switched to the Rogue once we began describing the classes. I was completely cool with doubling up the pregens. We figured that he and the other Rogue were kindred of some sort and ran with it. He had a blast the whole time playing with a bunch of guys in their 30s, 40s using only dice and imagination. I was happy to see this. I didn’t know what to expect. He could have just thought it was really weird and kind of boring, but he was just as enthusiastic as we were.
5e Newbies – all of us were noobs to 5e, and me doubly as this was my first time DMing anything. None of us had played it, only me and one other had even read the rules. I printed the combat section from the Basic document for reference. And at the beginning I gave a brief rundown on some differences they could expect such as Advantage/Disadvantage, Proficiency, Inspiration, etc. and tried to answer any questions they might have had. Really, when we began, everyone pretty much just trusted that I knew the rules and they would trust their character sheets.
And so we all headed toward Phandalin.
The Game
Even before we began everyone was already positioning themselves on the wagon for an attack. They heard the wagon needed protection from possible outlaws and took it seriously. They saw the dead horses and instantly stopped. They repositioned themselves better. Rogue 1 took shelter behind a barrel of ale. Others flanked the driver (Cleric) and Rogue 2 got under the cart and asked if he could hang upside down as they went. I said that was awesome so yes. There was no way they’d be caught off guard. They went slow and searchingly (and with great rolls). They saw the goblins and battle commenced without surprise. Our Archer instantly killed one in the bushes. The wizard Ray-of-Frosted another who was charging, damaging him and slowing his movement. The goblin archers whizzed an arrow over the wagon, but also nailed the Cleric pretty good, taking his 12hp to 3hp. That’s when everyone gulped. Especially the 8hp wizard. Rogue 2 dropped from under the wagon to his belly, unseen by the Frosted Goblin. He shot off an arrow for the kill. Pretty awesome moment for his first ever encounter. They quickly killed one of the goblin archers and per the adventure I had the last remaining archer flee. No one, but Rogue 2, ever left the wagon.
They approached the horses and gathered information. They took the saddles to sell later because D&D. Saw a trail where bodies were obviously dragged, but no one seemed to take the hint that it was Gundren. So when asked if the horses were branded I said one was branded with two runes, each stood for “Rock” and “Look out”. The dwarf still didn’t take the bait so I said, “You recognize the branding as the runes your cousin Gundren ROCKSEEKER uses.” He said, “Gundren is my cousin?” So he didn’t read his character background. Heh.
I used this opportunity to talk about Inspiration again. Saying that when you play to your background (and I inserted this next part for our group) in such a way as to advance or enhance the story, then you could be granted Inspiration. Something I instantly saw our more 4e tactic based players begin trying! On one occasion the Archer made a decision against the entire party based on his Lawful Good alignment (something that never happened in a game before for us), he was overruled but I granted him Inspiration for it (which he later used to great effect). I also granted Inspiration to the Cleric, as the player is normally a ‘let’s just kick in the door and kill everything’ guy in other games, this time he realized the Cleric was kind and quiet and sort of waited on others to take the lead, taking into account his background as a soldier, and after a few times of playing to that I granted him Inspiration. Inspiration was a very good thing for our group.
Rogue 1 followed the tracks to the Goblin Trail. The party then decided to send 3 of the party along with the wagon slowly towards Phandalin while 2 stayed behind to inspect the Trail. If they didn’t find anything, they’d meet the wagon. Rogue 1 and Wizard stayed behind. Now I really didn’t want them to head to town. I wanted them to go find the Hideout. So in my head I assumed the Goblin that ran away from the ambush was a bit of a dolt and forgot where the first trap was, and in his haste got snagged. I had the Wizard and Rogue 1 find him cursing himself swaying and hanging upside down.
They intimidated him into divulging where the prisoners were and how many goblins were left. They bound him, caught up with the wagon, hid the wagon, and all made their way to the trail with the goblin Skrag as their guide. They forced Skrag to tell them there was at least one more trap but Skrag didn’t know where it was. The Rogue 1 found it pretty easily. They made it to the Hideout and Skrag was persuaded (via shiny coins and intimidation) to say the cave is usually guarded. The rogues found the guards sleeping and Rogue 2 and Archer took them out before they were awake.
The party heard the wolves and chains from the mouth of the cave. They asked Skrag how many there were. (Skrag couldn’t count…so he said Arf, Barf, Scarf). 3 wolves. The Rogues checked out the wolf room and reported back. They asked Skrag if he could calm the wolves (I had it from the beginning that Skrag did not want to enter the cave) he said sometimes he could, showing them a scar from his unsuccessful encounters. Here the party (who really trusted Skrag and had told him that they’d let him go free with a couple of gold coins) began to debate if they should force him to go in and have him calm the dogs. Skrag insisted he wouldn’t go into the cave. The Wizard (who had been intimidating him the whole time) failed on this intimidation check and Skrag was resolute. He would not enter the cave. So the Wizard held the goblins face and spoke kind words to him, telling him he’s going to let him go and he did a good job. And that’s when Rogue 1 stuck a sword through his back. With a bit of animal handling and an offering of Skrag’s dead body, the wolves were subdued.
They found the chimney in the back. Rogue 2 climbed and saw a sleeping wolf, the shadow of Klarg, and was witness to a conversation between Klarg and Yeemik. Yeemik wanting to know what else should be done with the human captive. He reported all this to the party below and they all decided to climb the chimney.
Now here I didn’t want everyone to roll a million times just to see if they made it up. The first one fastened a rope to a stalagmite pretty sneakily which helped the others. Everyone was freakin stealthy ninjas except the cleric. The Wizard woke the wolf during his movement, but to no alarm. Then the Cleric, the last one up, failed his stealth check from the chimney to the stalagmite. This time the wolf heard and saw and rose to attack. This alerted Klarg who stood up from his ‘throne’ with his Morningstar. Via Initiative the Archer went first and killed the wolf outright. Per the adventure Klarg then tried to escape. Since the chimney was blocked he made his way to the waterfall cave. Here I planned on having him alert the goblins and then turn to make a stand. Klarg was nearly at the mouth of the exit. Rogue 2 hit with an arrow. Not much harm done. Wizard tried Ray of Frost but missed. And then the Cleric cast Guiding Bolt which hit and dealt (4d6!) a massive amount of damage. The Archer easily took him out after that.
To be honest, I kind of had a brief, Oh Crap moment. I expected this to go a lot different. I almost had a couple of goblins come in but our time was getting shorter, and to be honest, it would have felt pretty underwhelming after a pretty cool battle. The Cleric felt redeemed for all of his failed stealth checks. The party then scrounged for valuables, took what they wanted and stashed it to return later. Then they Weekend-at-Bernie’d Klarg, placing him back on his thrown and setting it up to look like he was sleeping. They made their way out into the waterfall cave and got the drop on some Goblins playing dice in a corner. The Cleric caused a loud sound in one direction and the rogues and archer took them out. They made it seem like kind of a cakewalk, but it didn’t feel to the players like a cakewalk. Really they all rolled pretty dang good all night. Plus it played into what kind of became their modus operondi for the night, which was stealthy, clever, and quick to kill.
They had some debate about the pools. The more experienced players figured something was up with the two pools. They couldn’t just be regular old pools. Something was up. Their main idea was that the goblins kept a monster in the water. They tossed the goblin bodies in and nothing happened. They examined the dams and more or less figured out the reason for the pools was less devious than they had assumed. (But now knowing their hesitancy for normal pools of water I think I’ll play to that down the line) Then the Rogue 1 made his way down the hall and took out the guard on the bridge. Unfortunately we had to end our session there.
A Couple of Unexpected Takeaways
Ease of Rules! The one thing I was most fearful about was that I would be in a situation as a DM where I really jacked up the rules in a way that screwed up fun or story. I was also paranoid that I would be constantly checking the rules to make sure I was doing it right. In the past we were always flipping through the PHB making sure one thing or another was the right way to do it. As I said, I printed combat reference sheets for everyone so that they could make sure they were doing it right. I figured this would be happening based on our past experience. Guess what. I referred to the rules in play only once. And that was just to double check something I already assumed was right. I know this because the Cleric had my Starter Rules for his spells and I only took it from him once. After a brief look over the combat handout and discussion before the game, I don’t think anyone even touched the handouts. The rules really faded into the background and allowed us to get through the game and have a lot of fun. I don’t mean we ignored the rules. I mean, they were so simple and quick to become a part of the game that we soon didn’t think much about them. Like I said, 3 out of 5 of us had never even read the rules for 5e. And no one had an issue. Easy and fun. Straight up. I didn’t expect that to be the case, especially with a kid who had never played D&D before.
No Battlemat?! As a group we have always used a battlemat. ALWAYS. For us, D&D = Battlemat. We all enjoy it as a visual aspect of the game. All of us own minis and one of us owns a giant table sized chessex mat we use for all our adventuring needs. When I was prepping this game, I prepped with a battlemat in mind. There was no question we were going to use it. Even when I arrived to DM the battlemat, though not on the table, was ready to go. But a funny and completely unintentional thing happened. When the party came upon the horses, before the ambush even began, the players wanted to have a better visual representation of what they were seeing and their surroundings. Our old school player told us they used to use simple graph paper just to draw out a rough visual so that’s what we did. I drew a rough sketch on paper and described everything else. Then the ambush came and we just used the graph paper for reference. Not as a battlemat, but simply visual reference and described everything else. Again, I did not intend for this to happen. I love the battlemat. We are a group that loves the battlemat. It just happened. Our old school player gave me some tips on what they used to do to visually represent the battle on the graph paper using lines and Xs and Os like a football playbook. Literally like 10 seconds worth of explaining, here’s what we used to do, and then without thinking we just did it like they used to do.
I even told them that we’ll definitely need the battlemat for the next encounter (cragmaw hideout) because it was more complex than the road. But we got to the cave and the same thing happened again. To show them the outside of the cave I just flipped the graph paper over to give them a quick visual and this led to a visual of the wolves den, and then Klargs lair, and then the Waterfall room. We never used the battlemat the entire time and it was really, really, really, really, really fun. In the past we would meticulously draw to scale the dungeon via the map in the adventure and place our minis exactly where we wanted them to be. For this I didn’t draw anything to scale with the map. I just drew something similar and quick, but once it was on the graph paper that’s what we played to. I drew a stalagmite a little too close to the wall once and it became a good hiding spot. We didn’t fuss with distances, (something I thought we needed the battlemat for to squash any possibility for dispute), and in fact it caused everyone to be more creative. Instead of saying, “I go here” the players literally were describing to me what they were doing or going to do and how they were doing it. I mean, the new kid was hanging underneath the wagon in our first encounter! That wouldn’t have happened in the past two editions for us. It didn’t feel forced either. I didn’t ask them to describe it for me. They just did. I didn’t prepare them to play Theatre of the Mind because I was planning on the battlemat! What shocked me was that it felt natural not to have a battlemat. If you would have asked me Saturday morning if I preferred a battlemat I would have said “Of course!” but literally only a few hours and a new ruleset has completely convinced me otherwise!
Epilogue
Everyone was impressed with 5e. The old school guys were thrilled. They enjoyed the recent editions, but this one obviously scratched an itch that the others didn’t. To be honest, though I hadn’t played 1 or 2e, I felt the same. There was something here that gave me a greater satisfaction than the previous editions. The guys who didn’t normally get into their characters were making an effort to be in character without me telling them to. The rules pulled them along that way. The new kid had a smile on his face the whole time and said he had a lot of fun. Not only did this allow us to play a good version of D&D, it changed what had been our normal experience of D&D into something richer. Most of us had only played D&D with a battlemat, and at the end all of us agreed how fun it was without it. I had high expectations for 5e and it exceeded those high expectations! The only thing that I’m upset about is that it will be a long time before we can play again!
This weekend I DM’d my first game ever. I haven’t played with my group in probably about 2 years. Families and kids, you know. The last edition we played was 4e. I purchased the Starter Set and we got the gang back together. I offered to DM (knowing that if I took the wheel then at least I’d get to play something!) plus I was the only one with the Lost Mine adventure. (Lost Mine Spoilers to follow)
I wanted to give a report of the night because I think it provides a unique perspective of experience and an insight into the playability/adaptability of 5e and Lost Mine. Ages ranged from 13-40s. Experience of players ranged from 1e to never played a tabletop RPG before.
As a new DM I wanted to know everything before starting my first game, especially who and how many were playing. Unfortunately I only had a vague idea until about 20 minutes before we started. But really this turned out to be an unnecessary thing to worry about. I just ran as is and fun was had by all.
Only two of us were “familiar” with 5e. I had the Starter Set Rules and Basic Rules. Our wizard had the PHB, but hadn’t delved into it much. Everyone else came in pretty much cold. One of our players even came with his 4e PHB and character not realizing we were playing a new edition (despite more than a few emails/texts prodding everyone to check the new Basic Rules). Another player brought along a kid (age 13 maybe?) who had never played before and wasn’t exactly sure what D&D was. Before I really dive into this and everyone thinks we went into this too sloppy (well , yeah we did, but we kind of couldn’t help it), I do want to point out that this group is really laid back. Everyone is really easy to work with and willing to make the game as best as possible and just have fun. There are no divas in the group. Otherwise, I could see how it might have been a train wreck.
Players/D&D Experience:
Human Wizard – the only newly created character of the party. A bit incomplete as he hadn’t selected a background yet. I gave him the wizard pregen from the Starter and told him to use the background/proficiencies from that sheet. His experience with D&D begins with 2e into 3.5 into 4. He is normally the DM of our group.
Human Fighter, Archer – from the pregen. He initially brought his beloved 4e Ranger and I offered the Archer centric Fighter for familiarity sake. He scanned his pregen sheet to find something similar to Hunter’s Quarry (I think that’s what it’s called) and I think was a little disappointed not to find something like that. However, when we started playing I think virtually every shot he took (due to awesome rolls) were instant kills, which made him pretty happy. The archer is his wheelhouse and this pregen satisfied. His d&d experience (like mine) is 3.5 and 4e
Dwarven Cleric – from the pregen. This was played by the guy who is normally our beefcake fighter. Big and brawny is his go-to character. I assumed he’d take the Fighter with the Greataxe. But interestingly he chose the cleric. To be honest, whether it is due to previous editions or whatever else, no one in our group has been fond of the cleric. No one ever wanted to be the cleric. So I was surprised at his choice. And after seeing him play the cleric, I actually began to think I’d like to play a cleric at some point. His experience is 3.5 and 4e.
Halfling Rogue 1 – Our most experienced player, he started back in the day and often entertains our group by telling tales about the days of D&D yore. He’s really been the one most of us learned from in this group, and has been really helpful in forming the way we all approach an adventure via combat or exploration, etc. He’s been there before and knows what to ask, look for, etc. This really has helped our group dive into the story where, without him I think a lot of our time would have been simply tactical combat chess.
Halfling Rogue 2 – played by a 13ish year old who was as unfamiliar with D&D as anyone could be. We gave him the crashiest of crash courses on what D&D is and what a player is expected to do and I think he maybe understood half of it. But he did get the concept of a role playing game. At first he wanted to play the Human Archer pregen, but then switched to the Rogue once we began describing the classes. I was completely cool with doubling up the pregens. We figured that he and the other Rogue were kindred of some sort and ran with it. He had a blast the whole time playing with a bunch of guys in their 30s, 40s using only dice and imagination. I was happy to see this. I didn’t know what to expect. He could have just thought it was really weird and kind of boring, but he was just as enthusiastic as we were.
5e Newbies – all of us were noobs to 5e, and me doubly as this was my first time DMing anything. None of us had played it, only me and one other had even read the rules. I printed the combat section from the Basic document for reference. And at the beginning I gave a brief rundown on some differences they could expect such as Advantage/Disadvantage, Proficiency, Inspiration, etc. and tried to answer any questions they might have had. Really, when we began, everyone pretty much just trusted that I knew the rules and they would trust their character sheets.
And so we all headed toward Phandalin.
The Game
Even before we began everyone was already positioning themselves on the wagon for an attack. They heard the wagon needed protection from possible outlaws and took it seriously. They saw the dead horses and instantly stopped. They repositioned themselves better. Rogue 1 took shelter behind a barrel of ale. Others flanked the driver (Cleric) and Rogue 2 got under the cart and asked if he could hang upside down as they went. I said that was awesome so yes. There was no way they’d be caught off guard. They went slow and searchingly (and with great rolls). They saw the goblins and battle commenced without surprise. Our Archer instantly killed one in the bushes. The wizard Ray-of-Frosted another who was charging, damaging him and slowing his movement. The goblin archers whizzed an arrow over the wagon, but also nailed the Cleric pretty good, taking his 12hp to 3hp. That’s when everyone gulped. Especially the 8hp wizard. Rogue 2 dropped from under the wagon to his belly, unseen by the Frosted Goblin. He shot off an arrow for the kill. Pretty awesome moment for his first ever encounter. They quickly killed one of the goblin archers and per the adventure I had the last remaining archer flee. No one, but Rogue 2, ever left the wagon.
They approached the horses and gathered information. They took the saddles to sell later because D&D. Saw a trail where bodies were obviously dragged, but no one seemed to take the hint that it was Gundren. So when asked if the horses were branded I said one was branded with two runes, each stood for “Rock” and “Look out”. The dwarf still didn’t take the bait so I said, “You recognize the branding as the runes your cousin Gundren ROCKSEEKER uses.” He said, “Gundren is my cousin?” So he didn’t read his character background. Heh.
I used this opportunity to talk about Inspiration again. Saying that when you play to your background (and I inserted this next part for our group) in such a way as to advance or enhance the story, then you could be granted Inspiration. Something I instantly saw our more 4e tactic based players begin trying! On one occasion the Archer made a decision against the entire party based on his Lawful Good alignment (something that never happened in a game before for us), he was overruled but I granted him Inspiration for it (which he later used to great effect). I also granted Inspiration to the Cleric, as the player is normally a ‘let’s just kick in the door and kill everything’ guy in other games, this time he realized the Cleric was kind and quiet and sort of waited on others to take the lead, taking into account his background as a soldier, and after a few times of playing to that I granted him Inspiration. Inspiration was a very good thing for our group.
Rogue 1 followed the tracks to the Goblin Trail. The party then decided to send 3 of the party along with the wagon slowly towards Phandalin while 2 stayed behind to inspect the Trail. If they didn’t find anything, they’d meet the wagon. Rogue 1 and Wizard stayed behind. Now I really didn’t want them to head to town. I wanted them to go find the Hideout. So in my head I assumed the Goblin that ran away from the ambush was a bit of a dolt and forgot where the first trap was, and in his haste got snagged. I had the Wizard and Rogue 1 find him cursing himself swaying and hanging upside down.
They intimidated him into divulging where the prisoners were and how many goblins were left. They bound him, caught up with the wagon, hid the wagon, and all made their way to the trail with the goblin Skrag as their guide. They forced Skrag to tell them there was at least one more trap but Skrag didn’t know where it was. The Rogue 1 found it pretty easily. They made it to the Hideout and Skrag was persuaded (via shiny coins and intimidation) to say the cave is usually guarded. The rogues found the guards sleeping and Rogue 2 and Archer took them out before they were awake.
The party heard the wolves and chains from the mouth of the cave. They asked Skrag how many there were. (Skrag couldn’t count…so he said Arf, Barf, Scarf). 3 wolves. The Rogues checked out the wolf room and reported back. They asked Skrag if he could calm the wolves (I had it from the beginning that Skrag did not want to enter the cave) he said sometimes he could, showing them a scar from his unsuccessful encounters. Here the party (who really trusted Skrag and had told him that they’d let him go free with a couple of gold coins) began to debate if they should force him to go in and have him calm the dogs. Skrag insisted he wouldn’t go into the cave. The Wizard (who had been intimidating him the whole time) failed on this intimidation check and Skrag was resolute. He would not enter the cave. So the Wizard held the goblins face and spoke kind words to him, telling him he’s going to let him go and he did a good job. And that’s when Rogue 1 stuck a sword through his back. With a bit of animal handling and an offering of Skrag’s dead body, the wolves were subdued.
They found the chimney in the back. Rogue 2 climbed and saw a sleeping wolf, the shadow of Klarg, and was witness to a conversation between Klarg and Yeemik. Yeemik wanting to know what else should be done with the human captive. He reported all this to the party below and they all decided to climb the chimney.
Now here I didn’t want everyone to roll a million times just to see if they made it up. The first one fastened a rope to a stalagmite pretty sneakily which helped the others. Everyone was freakin stealthy ninjas except the cleric. The Wizard woke the wolf during his movement, but to no alarm. Then the Cleric, the last one up, failed his stealth check from the chimney to the stalagmite. This time the wolf heard and saw and rose to attack. This alerted Klarg who stood up from his ‘throne’ with his Morningstar. Via Initiative the Archer went first and killed the wolf outright. Per the adventure Klarg then tried to escape. Since the chimney was blocked he made his way to the waterfall cave. Here I planned on having him alert the goblins and then turn to make a stand. Klarg was nearly at the mouth of the exit. Rogue 2 hit with an arrow. Not much harm done. Wizard tried Ray of Frost but missed. And then the Cleric cast Guiding Bolt which hit and dealt (4d6!) a massive amount of damage. The Archer easily took him out after that.
To be honest, I kind of had a brief, Oh Crap moment. I expected this to go a lot different. I almost had a couple of goblins come in but our time was getting shorter, and to be honest, it would have felt pretty underwhelming after a pretty cool battle. The Cleric felt redeemed for all of his failed stealth checks. The party then scrounged for valuables, took what they wanted and stashed it to return later. Then they Weekend-at-Bernie’d Klarg, placing him back on his thrown and setting it up to look like he was sleeping. They made their way out into the waterfall cave and got the drop on some Goblins playing dice in a corner. The Cleric caused a loud sound in one direction and the rogues and archer took them out. They made it seem like kind of a cakewalk, but it didn’t feel to the players like a cakewalk. Really they all rolled pretty dang good all night. Plus it played into what kind of became their modus operondi for the night, which was stealthy, clever, and quick to kill.
They had some debate about the pools. The more experienced players figured something was up with the two pools. They couldn’t just be regular old pools. Something was up. Their main idea was that the goblins kept a monster in the water. They tossed the goblin bodies in and nothing happened. They examined the dams and more or less figured out the reason for the pools was less devious than they had assumed. (But now knowing their hesitancy for normal pools of water I think I’ll play to that down the line) Then the Rogue 1 made his way down the hall and took out the guard on the bridge. Unfortunately we had to end our session there.
A Couple of Unexpected Takeaways
Ease of Rules! The one thing I was most fearful about was that I would be in a situation as a DM where I really jacked up the rules in a way that screwed up fun or story. I was also paranoid that I would be constantly checking the rules to make sure I was doing it right. In the past we were always flipping through the PHB making sure one thing or another was the right way to do it. As I said, I printed combat reference sheets for everyone so that they could make sure they were doing it right. I figured this would be happening based on our past experience. Guess what. I referred to the rules in play only once. And that was just to double check something I already assumed was right. I know this because the Cleric had my Starter Rules for his spells and I only took it from him once. After a brief look over the combat handout and discussion before the game, I don’t think anyone even touched the handouts. The rules really faded into the background and allowed us to get through the game and have a lot of fun. I don’t mean we ignored the rules. I mean, they were so simple and quick to become a part of the game that we soon didn’t think much about them. Like I said, 3 out of 5 of us had never even read the rules for 5e. And no one had an issue. Easy and fun. Straight up. I didn’t expect that to be the case, especially with a kid who had never played D&D before.
No Battlemat?! As a group we have always used a battlemat. ALWAYS. For us, D&D = Battlemat. We all enjoy it as a visual aspect of the game. All of us own minis and one of us owns a giant table sized chessex mat we use for all our adventuring needs. When I was prepping this game, I prepped with a battlemat in mind. There was no question we were going to use it. Even when I arrived to DM the battlemat, though not on the table, was ready to go. But a funny and completely unintentional thing happened. When the party came upon the horses, before the ambush even began, the players wanted to have a better visual representation of what they were seeing and their surroundings. Our old school player told us they used to use simple graph paper just to draw out a rough visual so that’s what we did. I drew a rough sketch on paper and described everything else. Then the ambush came and we just used the graph paper for reference. Not as a battlemat, but simply visual reference and described everything else. Again, I did not intend for this to happen. I love the battlemat. We are a group that loves the battlemat. It just happened. Our old school player gave me some tips on what they used to do to visually represent the battle on the graph paper using lines and Xs and Os like a football playbook. Literally like 10 seconds worth of explaining, here’s what we used to do, and then without thinking we just did it like they used to do.
I even told them that we’ll definitely need the battlemat for the next encounter (cragmaw hideout) because it was more complex than the road. But we got to the cave and the same thing happened again. To show them the outside of the cave I just flipped the graph paper over to give them a quick visual and this led to a visual of the wolves den, and then Klargs lair, and then the Waterfall room. We never used the battlemat the entire time and it was really, really, really, really, really fun. In the past we would meticulously draw to scale the dungeon via the map in the adventure and place our minis exactly where we wanted them to be. For this I didn’t draw anything to scale with the map. I just drew something similar and quick, but once it was on the graph paper that’s what we played to. I drew a stalagmite a little too close to the wall once and it became a good hiding spot. We didn’t fuss with distances, (something I thought we needed the battlemat for to squash any possibility for dispute), and in fact it caused everyone to be more creative. Instead of saying, “I go here” the players literally were describing to me what they were doing or going to do and how they were doing it. I mean, the new kid was hanging underneath the wagon in our first encounter! That wouldn’t have happened in the past two editions for us. It didn’t feel forced either. I didn’t ask them to describe it for me. They just did. I didn’t prepare them to play Theatre of the Mind because I was planning on the battlemat! What shocked me was that it felt natural not to have a battlemat. If you would have asked me Saturday morning if I preferred a battlemat I would have said “Of course!” but literally only a few hours and a new ruleset has completely convinced me otherwise!
Epilogue
Everyone was impressed with 5e. The old school guys were thrilled. They enjoyed the recent editions, but this one obviously scratched an itch that the others didn’t. To be honest, though I hadn’t played 1 or 2e, I felt the same. There was something here that gave me a greater satisfaction than the previous editions. The guys who didn’t normally get into their characters were making an effort to be in character without me telling them to. The rules pulled them along that way. The new kid had a smile on his face the whole time and said he had a lot of fun. Not only did this allow us to play a good version of D&D, it changed what had been our normal experience of D&D into something richer. Most of us had only played D&D with a battlemat, and at the end all of us agreed how fun it was without it. I had high expectations for 5e and it exceeded those high expectations! The only thing that I’m upset about is that it will be a long time before we can play again!
