Brother MacLaren
Explorer
Just ran my first game in 7 years over the weekend. Was camping with my wife, her brother, their cousin, and several of their friends. My brother-in-law had previously expressed an interest in having me run a D&D game. Of the seven players, only one had prior TTRPG experience, and one had played a bit of WoW. They were all curious as to what the game was about.
I figured KotB was the way to go. I had no books or dice with me, but my brother-in-law bought a dice-roller app for his phone, so we had one set of dice to pass around. It wasn't very combat-heavy in the end, but I felt they did miss out on the fun of cheering for or railing against their little plastic icosahedrons, which frankly *is* part of the fun, silly as it sounds. I pulled some details from memory, and improvised others.
I did a mish-mash edition. 3d6 arrange to taste and +1 to any stat, BECMI modifiers, reroll if penalties outweigh bonuses. "Classes" were new to them so I wrote out the five classes (Bard as 5th) with descriptive archetypes (e.g. "Rogue" includes "Thief," "Ninja," and "Scout" concepts). I asked them to roll stats, pick a class, and then tell me a feat -- something their character is particularly good at compared to other fighters, scouts, or whatever. And I'd figure out the mechanics. One wanted to be a cyborg, so I figured a man with some clockwork parts was not totally out of place in Mystara. He wanted his feat to be perfect math computation. A fighter wanted to be somewhat fire resistant, a scout wanted to be great at climbing and foraging for food, a rogue wanted to be unnoticeable in crowds, the bard wanted to happen to speak a little bit of most plot-relevant languages, and so on. They all seemed to have flavorful ideas in mind. Similarly, I asked the wizards what kind of spells they wanted to be able to do, then gave them 2 at-will spells and 1 more powerful limited spell (a bit of 5E here) and kept the stats for the spells in my head.
I described the Keep and the Borderlands and asked them to come up with a reason for going there. I hand-waved and described their defeat of a bandit attack on the caravan they were traveling with, so they could see how their abilities would be used in combat, and so they could earn access to the Castellan for the main quest. They all had to give their reasons to the gate guards (except for the unnoticeable rogue, who slipped in with the caravan team). Most aced this part, but the one who bombed got to have some interesting RP moments. "I want to study the dark arts and practice necromancy on the corpses of the orcs who are threatening your Keep" is not really a good answer. The guards sent him to the Priest of Boccob, who had been looking for somebody to infiltrate the necromantic cult in the Caves of Chaos. The rest of the party explored the Outer Bailey, mostly the tavern. I passed out rumors on separate pieces of paper, that they could choose to share with others and follow up on, or else keep hidden. The other wizard met with the Castellan, who told the wizard about the Caves of Chaos, and how some force was gathering humanoids there. They bought supplies (I assumed enough cash as a reward from the caravan to get nearly anything mundane) and ventured out. They asked if they would have to buy whetstones to keep blades sharp, or have to buy food to avoid starving, and I tried to convey that I wasn't going to be nitpicky about details, but that it would add flavor for their characters to do these mundane "in-character" things. Tried to get them to think "What would your character do?"
They had a very entertaining encounter with the Mad Hermit, with one player working her PC's background into a rumor they had heard about the Hermit. There were hints that there was some connection between the Hermit and the Cult. After some riddling and crazed dialogue, he gave them a silver candlestick with Cynidicean writing. The bard managed to figure out that it was a religious item (the holder for "The Candle of Anguish"), probably dedicated to some deity of that obscure civilization. Upon reaching the Caves, the bard parked himself in the middle of the valley floor and started a depressing performance of mopey songs. This lured out the enraged orc guards, who the party defeated in a pitched battle. The necromancer had a concentration-duration Animate Dead ability, and raised one orc ("Ted") to scout for traps. They ignored the orc and goblinoid caves and headed for the kobold cave. Ted quickly found the bottom of the pit trap, and the players had fun figuring out ways to cross ("Fill the pit with more orc corpses" was one idea). The scouts found a secret door to bypass the rest of the kobold hall of death traps, so upon the PCs reaching the common room, the kobolds quickly surrendered and agreed to leave on the condition that the clockwork man help them make better traps based on his mechanisms.
Lots of RP'ing in the Keep, the orc battle, and the kobold lair is as far as they got before it got too late. I think everybody had a great time. I was quite happy with my voices and NPC personalities (something I am not all that great at usually). Rules were very simple to keep things moving, somewhat softballed but there was still a clear fear of death by the players. I tried to ensure that each PC got at least some spotlight time (but 7 players is a lot!).
Plot stuff I didn't get to use: the Cult of Evil Chaos has summoned the humanoids there with promises, bribes, and threats. The point is NOT an attack on the Keep, as the humanoids believe, but rather a ritual sacrifice. Each cave had grooves and drains so that blood would flow down into a ritual pool in the Shrine (which was only accessible through the Minotaur's Labyrinth; the pools from B1 were elsewhere in the Labyrinth). The bottom of the pit trap had such a drain, although they just left Ted down there and never checked it out. The blood of humanoids and the blood of adventurers would flow down into the pool for the ritual which would ultimately awaken Zargon in the Lost City. The Mad Hermit was previously a priest in the cult, but upon reading a forbidden text he went insane and ran away.
I like making the Shrine of Evil Chaos the base for a Zargon cult, and if I run an actual campaign again this is the direction I'd go with it. Problem is that I would really love to do both B4 and B10 and I think finishing one puts you out of the range of the other. Maybe push the lower pyramid and underground city to mid-Expert levels, and tie B10's material to Cynidicea? So it would be B2-B4.1-B10-B4.2.
This was a really excellent experience for a long-rusty DM and a bunch of first-time players. Just thought I would share.
I figured KotB was the way to go. I had no books or dice with me, but my brother-in-law bought a dice-roller app for his phone, so we had one set of dice to pass around. It wasn't very combat-heavy in the end, but I felt they did miss out on the fun of cheering for or railing against their little plastic icosahedrons, which frankly *is* part of the fun, silly as it sounds. I pulled some details from memory, and improvised others.
I did a mish-mash edition. 3d6 arrange to taste and +1 to any stat, BECMI modifiers, reroll if penalties outweigh bonuses. "Classes" were new to them so I wrote out the five classes (Bard as 5th) with descriptive archetypes (e.g. "Rogue" includes "Thief," "Ninja," and "Scout" concepts). I asked them to roll stats, pick a class, and then tell me a feat -- something their character is particularly good at compared to other fighters, scouts, or whatever. And I'd figure out the mechanics. One wanted to be a cyborg, so I figured a man with some clockwork parts was not totally out of place in Mystara. He wanted his feat to be perfect math computation. A fighter wanted to be somewhat fire resistant, a scout wanted to be great at climbing and foraging for food, a rogue wanted to be unnoticeable in crowds, the bard wanted to happen to speak a little bit of most plot-relevant languages, and so on. They all seemed to have flavorful ideas in mind. Similarly, I asked the wizards what kind of spells they wanted to be able to do, then gave them 2 at-will spells and 1 more powerful limited spell (a bit of 5E here) and kept the stats for the spells in my head.
I described the Keep and the Borderlands and asked them to come up with a reason for going there. I hand-waved and described their defeat of a bandit attack on the caravan they were traveling with, so they could see how their abilities would be used in combat, and so they could earn access to the Castellan for the main quest. They all had to give their reasons to the gate guards (except for the unnoticeable rogue, who slipped in with the caravan team). Most aced this part, but the one who bombed got to have some interesting RP moments. "I want to study the dark arts and practice necromancy on the corpses of the orcs who are threatening your Keep" is not really a good answer. The guards sent him to the Priest of Boccob, who had been looking for somebody to infiltrate the necromantic cult in the Caves of Chaos. The rest of the party explored the Outer Bailey, mostly the tavern. I passed out rumors on separate pieces of paper, that they could choose to share with others and follow up on, or else keep hidden. The other wizard met with the Castellan, who told the wizard about the Caves of Chaos, and how some force was gathering humanoids there. They bought supplies (I assumed enough cash as a reward from the caravan to get nearly anything mundane) and ventured out. They asked if they would have to buy whetstones to keep blades sharp, or have to buy food to avoid starving, and I tried to convey that I wasn't going to be nitpicky about details, but that it would add flavor for their characters to do these mundane "in-character" things. Tried to get them to think "What would your character do?"
They had a very entertaining encounter with the Mad Hermit, with one player working her PC's background into a rumor they had heard about the Hermit. There were hints that there was some connection between the Hermit and the Cult. After some riddling and crazed dialogue, he gave them a silver candlestick with Cynidicean writing. The bard managed to figure out that it was a religious item (the holder for "The Candle of Anguish"), probably dedicated to some deity of that obscure civilization. Upon reaching the Caves, the bard parked himself in the middle of the valley floor and started a depressing performance of mopey songs. This lured out the enraged orc guards, who the party defeated in a pitched battle. The necromancer had a concentration-duration Animate Dead ability, and raised one orc ("Ted") to scout for traps. They ignored the orc and goblinoid caves and headed for the kobold cave. Ted quickly found the bottom of the pit trap, and the players had fun figuring out ways to cross ("Fill the pit with more orc corpses" was one idea). The scouts found a secret door to bypass the rest of the kobold hall of death traps, so upon the PCs reaching the common room, the kobolds quickly surrendered and agreed to leave on the condition that the clockwork man help them make better traps based on his mechanisms.
Lots of RP'ing in the Keep, the orc battle, and the kobold lair is as far as they got before it got too late. I think everybody had a great time. I was quite happy with my voices and NPC personalities (something I am not all that great at usually). Rules were very simple to keep things moving, somewhat softballed but there was still a clear fear of death by the players. I tried to ensure that each PC got at least some spotlight time (but 7 players is a lot!).
Plot stuff I didn't get to use: the Cult of Evil Chaos has summoned the humanoids there with promises, bribes, and threats. The point is NOT an attack on the Keep, as the humanoids believe, but rather a ritual sacrifice. Each cave had grooves and drains so that blood would flow down into a ritual pool in the Shrine (which was only accessible through the Minotaur's Labyrinth; the pools from B1 were elsewhere in the Labyrinth). The bottom of the pit trap had such a drain, although they just left Ted down there and never checked it out. The blood of humanoids and the blood of adventurers would flow down into the pool for the ritual which would ultimately awaken Zargon in the Lost City. The Mad Hermit was previously a priest in the cult, but upon reading a forbidden text he went insane and ran away.
I like making the Shrine of Evil Chaos the base for a Zargon cult, and if I run an actual campaign again this is the direction I'd go with it. Problem is that I would really love to do both B4 and B10 and I think finishing one puts you out of the range of the other. Maybe push the lower pyramid and underground city to mid-Expert levels, and tie B10's material to Cynidicea? So it would be B2-B4.1-B10-B4.2.
This was a really excellent experience for a long-rusty DM and a bunch of first-time players. Just thought I would share.
