So I put together a rough outline to an adventure, over the last week, and perused the various rules and classes. As a DM, I figured, on creating some interesting and complicated encounters, and see how things go. See how fragile first level characters really are, and what a Pregen playtest would look like.
Since I'm going to be starting a campaign in the same region they are playing these pregens as, I figured this would be a good opportunity to introduce some future story and the framework for that upcoming campaign. (I'll go into more detail on that in a little bit.)
So they arrived at the fort, and I gave them a basic rough outline of meet the Forts Captain, he typically has an assortment of "Jobs" for the venturing type, and its customary for newcomer adventurers to present themselves to the local authority and show their papers, and see if there were any "Jobs" they could do to "Help" him out as it were. (The premise of the region is its one of those far away points of light, and there are various ruins of ancient cities etc, but that have recently been turning up quite a bit wealth to the various adventurers, and word of it has gotten out a bit but it's not easy to get to the fort in question. So their sponsor sent them to this place to make a name and make some money. Think of the fort as something like Deadwood from HBO. But then add in the spice of an actual governmental force that is assigned to protect the town itself and the surrounding villages that support the Fort. But it's still quite a bit lawless at times, because it's a frontier Town/Fort, and most of the military are kept busy protecting the fort, and protecting the villages nearby. Beyond that, the roads and area is very dangerous.)
So then I decided to try something interesting, I know there is the possibility of an upcoming encounter, and I wanted to see if they could influence it with events by using skills and came up with a social encounter. The goal was secure a guide to the village, and survive their night in town, and also to achieve whatever other goal they may of had.
And explained to them the easy, moderate, hard skill challenges, and set them up with the 6/4 scenario. The player running Riardon the Ranger, decided he would keep an eye on his friends while they were going about their tasks so he used perception. Moderate test, he succeeded and noticed that a couple guys were watching his buddies while they were at the Shiny Copper Saloon. The halfling paladin, Corrin decided he would seek out a guide and did a diplomacy test once he found one at the Saloon, named ned. Moderate test, succeeded. They hired Ned. Then we had Skamos going with Kath (Male version of Kathra.) To make sure he didn't get into trouble and used a perception test to keep an eye out for trouble, he rolled a 20 and succeeded at a moderate test. I then gave him a +1 bonus on Kath's test, who chose a difficult test as he began boasting and trying to drink everyone under the tables, he decided he wanted a hard test. And I had set the difficulty for this hard at 25, he came up with a 24 with the +1 from Skamos, And ended up getting him and Skamos plastered that night and robbed of their gold. Then we had Varia (female version of Varis elven rogue from these boards), who wanted to get the lay of the land outside the fort, and did a nature test. She failed, and got lost outside the fort, and ended up sleeping the night outside the walls. (We all got a laugh at that.) Then we were 3/3, so back to the Ranger, who at this point decided he would try another perception test to keep an eye out for the bad guys, and failed. Which put them 3/4 enough for failures, and he too ended up losing his money for the night gambling with the dwarf and the tiefling.
They also didn't realize they were spotted by some brigands who overheard their need for the guide Ned, and they had some money.
Now, in the group we had 5 players, with 7 characters, they used all the pregens and the elven rogue from these forums. (We would of had a 6th player but he was sick and didn't want to spread his illness amongst us, and we thanked him for it, and told him next week would probably be running another playtest session which we will.)
So, off we go out into the adventure at hand, I originally had figured, that with 6 players, a tough fight would be about 750 points of encounter xp. And with the 7th figure added I kept it the same.
So they all got a active perception test and of all them the wizard got a nat 20 to notice the ambush in place. And warned the group.
The opponents, 2 Human Guards, 2 Human Bandits, 1 Human Berserker, and 1 Human Mage.
I let them parlay for a moment and then the Skamos grabbed his wand and then battle began. Now, this is where things get interesting, some of the players didn't remember to do their marks, etc as we played through. And the human mage got to drop his Thunder Burst and hit the most of the party but only Skamos was actually hit. (Bad rolls on the mages part) And we hit Skamos and left him dazed. (didn't have this printed out and cost him an action that 1st round, but he made his save as well to end it.)
The rogue actually got bumrushed by one of the bandits and got dazed as well also.
So the long and short of this, the player running the dwarf ran off to take on some targets up on the hill who were shooting at the party, ended up getting ambushed by another bandit but used his daily to smack the human guard using a crossbow to shoot at people.
Wait the long and short, the player running the dwarf learned that leaving his party to go run off the hard way to tackle lone foes was a bad call, as it left the group open up to melee attackers. This was his observation, he didn't do a very good job of defending. And vowed to make it up the next session. The Paladin, did get to use his abilities pretty well, challenged the berserker, layed on hands for Skamos who got hurt pretty bad by a Thunder Burst for max damage. And go to do his defender job pretty well.
The rogue, player had a lot of fun when she realized the whole flanking provides combat advantage, and then she'll get to roll those sneak attack damage dice. (She did good on this and then began to look for combat advantage in ever situation from that point on.) She ended up liking the rogue quite a bit as it started dishing out massive damage with the sneak attacks.
She also played the Warlock, and ended up having a blast with that one too, using her various powers, and then cursing people as well. She's actually pretty torn about what she wants to play when the game goes live in May with that (module we'll be playing in, to pass the time, till release.) She also seemed to really like the Ranger and his abilities.
Speaking of the Ranger, the player running him often isn't the most tactically sound player but for the first time, I saw him really opening up and started to really look around at the battlefield, and seeing who he could mark and shoot. (Once he remembered to mark people with the Hunters Quarry.) Once he did that, he started moving around, and taking out opponents left and right. He actually accounted for 3 kills in the game. And is loving the ranger big time, and I'm pretty sure he's gonna play one when it goes live.
Then the player running the Cleric, and also the Paladin, just didn't really connect with the character at all. He was doing damage and used a single heal to help keep folks in the battle. But this player did not connect with the cleric at all, and everyone knew it, and he wasn't gonna play one anyhow, he was just playing him so the group would have healing if needed. As the player who was sick was going to run the cleric.
The player running the wizard got to have a blast with him, using magic missiles, and even used his daily to put two bandits to sleep who were setting up some severe flanks and scaring them. And it worked on both of them no less.
Fun stuff, and he's really looking forward to playing one when the game goes live. To explore the options, and I think it will be a lot of fun too for him.
So overall they all really liked it, and looked forward to playing again. And they all seem to be fully embracing 4th Edition. They are finding their things to like about it, each of them. The whole conversation about 1,2,1,2, and going 1,1,1,1. Went pretty smooth, if everyone can do it, then it doesn't matter. Because it's about speeding up game play.
Now, the crunchies, we didn't get started until about 7:30pm tonight, because of some good food we had, and the fun associated with making it and watching our buddy eating too fast and burning his mouth.
So there we were, and the session went well, had the social encounter after putting out the background info on the area. Finished the social and back ground stuff about 30-45 minutes in, and then we got to get into the combat encounter from the brigands looking to jack a bunch of rubes to the area.
Time went by really quickly, and we finished up the battle in about an hour, and got them to describe what their next actions would be which resulted in them taking a short break, catching their breath, the cleric using his encounter heals (I allowed up to 2 per 5 minutes at this point. To help them maximize their healing recoveries.) They also began to do the looting of bodies, and burying Ned who was killed dead by the the berserker.
And then we positioned the players where they would be/ended up at before the next encounter came along.
This one will be interesting, and very tough because they'll be encountering the Defiant Rake, and some guys assisting them, 2 Guards, and 2 Bandits.
And from there, they'll head off to the village, and just outside of the village, they'll encounter the final encounter of the day, 3 Deathjump Spiders feasting on a cow. (Got the description all worked up, peaceful Idyllic woodlands opening up to a pasture where they see a large cow just walking along turns and moos at them when from the woods, jumps the three spiders. Which then down the cow, see the players and the encounter begins.)
~~~~~~~~~
DM observations. This was a lot of fun to run, and adjudicating the social encounters, by rolls but also with them really trying to define what they wanted to do in the context of the story and their goal, and then seeing them try to come up with stuff was fantastic.
Seeing the idea that the players really could handle 750 xp or so worth of opponents with 7 of them, was also a blast. I realize that up to a certain point it'll be fairly challenging and then there will probably be a tipping point where certain opponents will just be too tough, until they can exploit each weakness.
But we'll see if they can handle the tougher encounters. Which I don't doubt, and then it gives me a certain sense of satisfaction seeing them enjoying themselves and the encounters, they were really getting into the combats, even as they made mistakes, they then picked up from those mistakes and learned from them.
Very fun. And completely validates my expectations for this edition. To be honest, the motto for this game reminds me something Paul Barnett at Mythic working on Warhammer online Age of Reckoning. You've got to understand Paul, he's funny and entertaining and full of life. And he's got a very specific motto for WAR. "Fun you !@#$ers" And if it's not fun, or just isn't entertaining, then it's rubbish and if it's rubbish it's not good. And shouldn't appear in the game.
But basically, it comes down to having fun. Fun is obviously subjective, but at its heart, D&D is game that involves combats. And if your going to play in those combats, they better be fun. And I can tell you that has to apply for the DM too. And if I get to come up with creative choices for encounter, and events, while also furthering a story, and the players are having fun with that story and the battles they encounter. Then we are living the motto. Fun you !@#$er's.
It's what I see in this game. I loved 3.5, and 3.0. They were awesome advances from 2nd edition. And I may of been unhappy that 3.5 actually came out as it did. And hope they don't ever do that again, EVER, because I don't know if they as a company would handle another trashing of their fan base. But, this edition, is so far, from just a simple playtest experience here using pieced together information from the ENworld Forums and the info over at the D&D website itself.
I won't look back to 3.5 to play. I'll just run new session until we get all the classes necessary to replicate past adventures and update them to 4th Edition. (Sort of need a druid, to help round that out.)
One combat observation, not worrying about allies providing cover, and firing into melee speeds up combat a LOT. And that's very helpful and makes rounds go faster.
Fun stuff.
Since I'm going to be starting a campaign in the same region they are playing these pregens as, I figured this would be a good opportunity to introduce some future story and the framework for that upcoming campaign. (I'll go into more detail on that in a little bit.)
So they arrived at the fort, and I gave them a basic rough outline of meet the Forts Captain, he typically has an assortment of "Jobs" for the venturing type, and its customary for newcomer adventurers to present themselves to the local authority and show their papers, and see if there were any "Jobs" they could do to "Help" him out as it were. (The premise of the region is its one of those far away points of light, and there are various ruins of ancient cities etc, but that have recently been turning up quite a bit wealth to the various adventurers, and word of it has gotten out a bit but it's not easy to get to the fort in question. So their sponsor sent them to this place to make a name and make some money. Think of the fort as something like Deadwood from HBO. But then add in the spice of an actual governmental force that is assigned to protect the town itself and the surrounding villages that support the Fort. But it's still quite a bit lawless at times, because it's a frontier Town/Fort, and most of the military are kept busy protecting the fort, and protecting the villages nearby. Beyond that, the roads and area is very dangerous.)
So then I decided to try something interesting, I know there is the possibility of an upcoming encounter, and I wanted to see if they could influence it with events by using skills and came up with a social encounter. The goal was secure a guide to the village, and survive their night in town, and also to achieve whatever other goal they may of had.
And explained to them the easy, moderate, hard skill challenges, and set them up with the 6/4 scenario. The player running Riardon the Ranger, decided he would keep an eye on his friends while they were going about their tasks so he used perception. Moderate test, he succeeded and noticed that a couple guys were watching his buddies while they were at the Shiny Copper Saloon. The halfling paladin, Corrin decided he would seek out a guide and did a diplomacy test once he found one at the Saloon, named ned. Moderate test, succeeded. They hired Ned. Then we had Skamos going with Kath (Male version of Kathra.) To make sure he didn't get into trouble and used a perception test to keep an eye out for trouble, he rolled a 20 and succeeded at a moderate test. I then gave him a +1 bonus on Kath's test, who chose a difficult test as he began boasting and trying to drink everyone under the tables, he decided he wanted a hard test. And I had set the difficulty for this hard at 25, he came up with a 24 with the +1 from Skamos, And ended up getting him and Skamos plastered that night and robbed of their gold. Then we had Varia (female version of Varis elven rogue from these boards), who wanted to get the lay of the land outside the fort, and did a nature test. She failed, and got lost outside the fort, and ended up sleeping the night outside the walls. (We all got a laugh at that.) Then we were 3/3, so back to the Ranger, who at this point decided he would try another perception test to keep an eye out for the bad guys, and failed. Which put them 3/4 enough for failures, and he too ended up losing his money for the night gambling with the dwarf and the tiefling.
They also didn't realize they were spotted by some brigands who overheard their need for the guide Ned, and they had some money.
Now, in the group we had 5 players, with 7 characters, they used all the pregens and the elven rogue from these forums. (We would of had a 6th player but he was sick and didn't want to spread his illness amongst us, and we thanked him for it, and told him next week would probably be running another playtest session which we will.)
So, off we go out into the adventure at hand, I originally had figured, that with 6 players, a tough fight would be about 750 points of encounter xp. And with the 7th figure added I kept it the same.
So they all got a active perception test and of all them the wizard got a nat 20 to notice the ambush in place. And warned the group.
The opponents, 2 Human Guards, 2 Human Bandits, 1 Human Berserker, and 1 Human Mage.
I let them parlay for a moment and then the Skamos grabbed his wand and then battle began. Now, this is where things get interesting, some of the players didn't remember to do their marks, etc as we played through. And the human mage got to drop his Thunder Burst and hit the most of the party but only Skamos was actually hit. (Bad rolls on the mages part) And we hit Skamos and left him dazed. (didn't have this printed out and cost him an action that 1st round, but he made his save as well to end it.)
The rogue actually got bumrushed by one of the bandits and got dazed as well also.
So the long and short of this, the player running the dwarf ran off to take on some targets up on the hill who were shooting at the party, ended up getting ambushed by another bandit but used his daily to smack the human guard using a crossbow to shoot at people.
Wait the long and short, the player running the dwarf learned that leaving his party to go run off the hard way to tackle lone foes was a bad call, as it left the group open up to melee attackers. This was his observation, he didn't do a very good job of defending. And vowed to make it up the next session. The Paladin, did get to use his abilities pretty well, challenged the berserker, layed on hands for Skamos who got hurt pretty bad by a Thunder Burst for max damage. And go to do his defender job pretty well.
The rogue, player had a lot of fun when she realized the whole flanking provides combat advantage, and then she'll get to roll those sneak attack damage dice. (She did good on this and then began to look for combat advantage in ever situation from that point on.) She ended up liking the rogue quite a bit as it started dishing out massive damage with the sneak attacks.
She also played the Warlock, and ended up having a blast with that one too, using her various powers, and then cursing people as well. She's actually pretty torn about what she wants to play when the game goes live in May with that (module we'll be playing in, to pass the time, till release.) She also seemed to really like the Ranger and his abilities.
Speaking of the Ranger, the player running him often isn't the most tactically sound player but for the first time, I saw him really opening up and started to really look around at the battlefield, and seeing who he could mark and shoot. (Once he remembered to mark people with the Hunters Quarry.) Once he did that, he started moving around, and taking out opponents left and right. He actually accounted for 3 kills in the game. And is loving the ranger big time, and I'm pretty sure he's gonna play one when it goes live.
Then the player running the Cleric, and also the Paladin, just didn't really connect with the character at all. He was doing damage and used a single heal to help keep folks in the battle. But this player did not connect with the cleric at all, and everyone knew it, and he wasn't gonna play one anyhow, he was just playing him so the group would have healing if needed. As the player who was sick was going to run the cleric.
The player running the wizard got to have a blast with him, using magic missiles, and even used his daily to put two bandits to sleep who were setting up some severe flanks and scaring them. And it worked on both of them no less.
Fun stuff, and he's really looking forward to playing one when the game goes live. To explore the options, and I think it will be a lot of fun too for him.
So overall they all really liked it, and looked forward to playing again. And they all seem to be fully embracing 4th Edition. They are finding their things to like about it, each of them. The whole conversation about 1,2,1,2, and going 1,1,1,1. Went pretty smooth, if everyone can do it, then it doesn't matter. Because it's about speeding up game play.
Now, the crunchies, we didn't get started until about 7:30pm tonight, because of some good food we had, and the fun associated with making it and watching our buddy eating too fast and burning his mouth.
So there we were, and the session went well, had the social encounter after putting out the background info on the area. Finished the social and back ground stuff about 30-45 minutes in, and then we got to get into the combat encounter from the brigands looking to jack a bunch of rubes to the area.
Time went by really quickly, and we finished up the battle in about an hour, and got them to describe what their next actions would be which resulted in them taking a short break, catching their breath, the cleric using his encounter heals (I allowed up to 2 per 5 minutes at this point. To help them maximize their healing recoveries.) They also began to do the looting of bodies, and burying Ned who was killed dead by the the berserker.
And then we positioned the players where they would be/ended up at before the next encounter came along.
This one will be interesting, and very tough because they'll be encountering the Defiant Rake, and some guys assisting them, 2 Guards, and 2 Bandits.
And from there, they'll head off to the village, and just outside of the village, they'll encounter the final encounter of the day, 3 Deathjump Spiders feasting on a cow. (Got the description all worked up, peaceful Idyllic woodlands opening up to a pasture where they see a large cow just walking along turns and moos at them when from the woods, jumps the three spiders. Which then down the cow, see the players and the encounter begins.)
~~~~~~~~~
DM observations. This was a lot of fun to run, and adjudicating the social encounters, by rolls but also with them really trying to define what they wanted to do in the context of the story and their goal, and then seeing them try to come up with stuff was fantastic.
Seeing the idea that the players really could handle 750 xp or so worth of opponents with 7 of them, was also a blast. I realize that up to a certain point it'll be fairly challenging and then there will probably be a tipping point where certain opponents will just be too tough, until they can exploit each weakness.
But we'll see if they can handle the tougher encounters. Which I don't doubt, and then it gives me a certain sense of satisfaction seeing them enjoying themselves and the encounters, they were really getting into the combats, even as they made mistakes, they then picked up from those mistakes and learned from them.
Very fun. And completely validates my expectations for this edition. To be honest, the motto for this game reminds me something Paul Barnett at Mythic working on Warhammer online Age of Reckoning. You've got to understand Paul, he's funny and entertaining and full of life. And he's got a very specific motto for WAR. "Fun you !@#$ers" And if it's not fun, or just isn't entertaining, then it's rubbish and if it's rubbish it's not good. And shouldn't appear in the game.
But basically, it comes down to having fun. Fun is obviously subjective, but at its heart, D&D is game that involves combats. And if your going to play in those combats, they better be fun. And I can tell you that has to apply for the DM too. And if I get to come up with creative choices for encounter, and events, while also furthering a story, and the players are having fun with that story and the battles they encounter. Then we are living the motto. Fun you !@#$er's.
It's what I see in this game. I loved 3.5, and 3.0. They were awesome advances from 2nd edition. And I may of been unhappy that 3.5 actually came out as it did. And hope they don't ever do that again, EVER, because I don't know if they as a company would handle another trashing of their fan base. But, this edition, is so far, from just a simple playtest experience here using pieced together information from the ENworld Forums and the info over at the D&D website itself.
I won't look back to 3.5 to play. I'll just run new session until we get all the classes necessary to replicate past adventures and update them to 4th Edition. (Sort of need a druid, to help round that out.)
One combat observation, not worrying about allies providing cover, and firing into melee speeds up combat a LOT. And that's very helpful and makes rounds go faster.
Fun stuff.
inspired by by DND, you can find comparisons between any edition and pretty much any fantasy-based MMORG.
