D&D General Actual Play: Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set

[THEMNGMNT]

I guess I forgot to post about session 6. My son (age 6) and daughter (age 9) finished Cave D by defeating the mimic. Super fun monster for kids. Then they returned to the Keep for shopping and socializing.

More importantly, they reached level 2. They were happy to get more hit points and spell slots.

Session 7 saw them return to the Caves of Chaos and enter Cavern J. Gnolls! Definitely tougher. Could have gotten ugly but they managed to roll 3 natural 20s!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 8: They finished Cavern J but have not yet recovered the treasure in the hidden sarcophagus room. We'll use that as the strong start for our next session.

 

[Zardnaar]

Started it today 4 player. 2 player created their own. Cleric and bard replacing wizard and cleric. Stat arrays.

They spend most of the session exploring the keep and doing side quests.

3 new recruits. One had a bit of experience in USA. She's sorta the new party leader in the games as she was the face.

We all loved the keep. Took mental notes of some tricks to add to my games. The fire ghost was hilarious.

All those skill checks and side quests they loved. Low risk way to get money. Let them get a random magic item potion of invisibility.

The went to the caves and talked the kobolds around. Bard made DC 27 charisma checks. Gave her advantage for roleplaying it out.

Decided the kobolds had sone information on bugbear, hobgoblin and goblin location. They went to goblin party.
Rogue burned the potion.

With advantage and guidance plus a bard dice she scouted the goblin cave and F the hobgoblins as well. Stealth R Us.

Session ended there. They spent a lot of time in the keep.

Lavish production values. The caves part bit meh. Keeps great. As DM i preferred Stormwrack Isle but the ganeboards abd tokens went down very well. Might be better for teaching complete newbies.

Wife played the cleric going support to help the other 3 out. Mostly 2 newbies. Recruited 3 off reddit.

Newbie fighter player has played 2E. He was an old friends brother we had met before. Old friend was one of my high school friends, best friend post school and played with us for a decade before he moved away. Used to play 2E with us. Small world.

Great session, everyone had fun and next session is Monday week.

 

[bedir than]

Started it today 4 player. 2 player created their own. Cleric and bard replacing wizard and cleric. Stat arrays.

They spend most of the session exploring the keep and doing side quests.

3 new recruits. One had a bit of experience in USA. She's sorta the new party leader in the games as she was the face.

We all loved the keep. Took mental notes of done tricks to add to my games. The fire ghost was hilarious.

All those skill checks and side quests they loved. Low risk way to get money. Let them get a random magic item potion of invisibility.

The went to the caves and talked the kobolds around. Bard made DC 27 charisma checks. Gave her advantage for roleplaying it out.

Decided the kobolds had sone information on bugbear, hobgoblin and goblin location. They went to goblin party.
Rogue burned the potion.

With advantage and guidance plus a bard dice she scouted the goblin cave and F the hobgoblins as well. Stealth R Us.

Session ended there. They spent a lot of time in the keep.

Lavish production values. The caves part bit meh. Keeps great. As DM i preferred Stormwrack Isle but the ganeboards abd tokens went down very well. Might be better for teaching complete newbies.

Wife played the cleric going support to help the other 3 out. Mostly 2 newbies. Recruited 3 off reddit.

Newbie fighter player has played 2E. He was an old friends brother we had met before. Old friend was one of my high school friends, best friend post school and played with us for a decade before he moved away. Used to play 2E with us. Small world.

Great session, everyone had fun and next session is Monday week.

Zard!
With so much of your commentary focused on power gaming/optimization it was wonderful to see how the set leaned you towards a lot of fun with social challenges (you may do these regularly without writing about it).

I still haven't opened my set, but I'm more confident in this box helping me guide first-timers than any other D&D product in history after so many reviews.

 

[Zardnaar]

Zard!
With so much of your commentary focused on power gaming/optimization it was wonderful to see how the set leaned you towards a lot of fun with social challenges (you may do these regularly without writing about it).

I still haven't opened my set, but I'm more confident in this box helping me guide first-timers than any other D&D product in history after so many reviews.

Its because mechanics are more objective.

Also no one really cares about your campaign. I've noticed elsewhere when others post about their campaigns very few if any responses. If I post about mine no one cares.

Actual campaign last session only had two combats just over an hour out of 4. Rest of it was bombing around the map, NPCs, Bastion stuff. I printed out a map of the area and grid overlay so they moved a mini representing the party doing exploration part.

I think they got distracted by the "gold" coins hand outs in the starter. Reminded us of ticket to Ride Netherlands.

Each npc having a token and a card or monster card also helps. Thats kind of a thing since 3E but having a handout for each NPC helped.

Ive copied a lot of BG3isms as well. Running pure sandbox between sessions I'm designing for the next one based on their actions. 2 hours of prep can cover 2 or 3 sessions.

I can pretty much ad hoc an encounter but I'm writing down NPC names, plot hook, firshadowing an incorporating PC backstory or hooks into it.