D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[the Jester]

I ran a great session last night, playtesting my own homebrewed version of dnd. It was this iteration's first playtest, and my first revision of it since 5e dropped 10 years ago.

The short description of the game system is that it's not the dnd you know; it doesn't even use the core "d20, higher is always better" system except for attacks, you don't get bonuses from your ability scores, etc. There are only the basic four classes (cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard), and there are only ten levels. (Other classes are represented via feats.) There are only the 'basic four' races, too.

The pcs started at first level and dealt with a bunch of kobolds who had harvested all the local ju-ju berries (used as a medical panacea and usually shared among the various local peoples, with none taking more than they are likely to need through the winter). The pcs had a number of encounters with kobolds, including a kobold alchemist, and several kobold dragonshields. They plowed through them and learned that the berries had been harvested to turn into jam to feed the "new god" of the kobold.

Pcs leveled to 2, then faced off with the new god, a white dragon hatchling and its entourage, a kobold sorcerer and a couple more dragonshields.

The pcs plowed through the kobolds as anticipated. I had been concerned about how frequently pcs would miss attacks, but this appears to be unfounded- even against the dragonshields (AC 16), they did fine. My fighter design worked great (for those who say my Battle Die thread, that's its main mechanic). The mechanics worked pretty well for the most part, though the rogue needs work- there were two of them and neither one ever landed a sneak attack. So I'm opening up the conditions for using sneak attack somewhat.

Altogether, it was a great game. I'm looking forward to more playtest games, both with these players and other groups.

 

[Richards]

I certainly wasn't trying to murder my players

Goodness! I should hope not!

Johnathan

 

[James Gasik]

Goodness! I should hope not!

Johnathan

Lol, well they seem to think I was, which is ludicrous, since this is still the first adventure and I've plotted out at least seven more!

 

[Richards]

Killing your players' PCs is one thing, but killing your players....

Highly frowned upon.

Johnathan

 

[James Gasik]

Killing your players' PCs is one thing, but killing your players....

Highly frowned upon.

Johnathan

Oh well, yeah, can't do that. At least not until I make a pool of acid or move closer to a lime pit or something!

 

[sunny---folk]

Just as the title says, I want to hear about your latest session of DnD, or any other game really.

Be as detailed or as brief as you like!

It was really good! I'm getting back in the swing of DMing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Because of timing we had to stop in the middle of combat, but we pick up this weekend and I am really excited.

 

[Richards]

In last night's "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs:

• Got a delivery at their new keep, several miles out of town: signed copies of a new book series about a group of heroes based on them, written by my human sorcerer's favorite author
• Had a wizard associate, Blorkane, show up at the keep saying he needed to buy back the cubic gate he'd sold to a dwarven miner several adventures ago (which we had taken custody of at the end of that adventure, worried that it led to the Abyss and the Nine Hells among other locations and wishing to keep it from the reach of anybody wanting to open portals to those domains); it turns out the gate was stolen property and the previous owner wanted it back
• Listened as Blorkane casually mentioned there were sheets of acidic rain and blasts of lightning striking the Dark and Light Club, their previous "headquarters" prior to moving into the keep
• Realized that sounded like a storm of vengeance spell, left Blorkane at their headquarters (with their stable hand) while they rushed into town on horseback/celestial pegasusback/atop a two-seater carpet of flying
• Cast battle prep spells, saw the Dark and Light Club in rubble and burning ruins, and observed a human male step out from among the rubble and drop a cloth, which turned into a burning pile of dung and human bones (my sorcerer knows that trick: shrink item spell!)
• Had the elf druid rush up on a hasted mount (the half-elf paladin's old warhorse, Law), only to find the human had mysteriously vanished (and the burning dung heap was the unholy symbol of Iuz)
• Had the druid's timber wolf approach and encounter a different human stepping out of an alleyway; the wolf tried to bite him and was surprised when the man wasn't quite where he seemed to be (apparently scent was of no assistance)
• Moved closer, surrounded the guy, only to have him turn into a Huge, dark-scaled dragon
• Fought the dragon (who yelled he wanted his cubic gate returned - we thought it was likely a demon or devil who owned the gate, but it turned out to be a shadow blue dragon), only to find out he had evasion (and high enough saves that my sorcerer was completely ineffective, as was the druid up until the very end) and concealment (which nerfed all of the elf archer's abilities)
• Basically had the half-elf paladin and the halfling rogue (under the effects of a greater invisibility) spell) cut the dragon down to size while the archer, sorcerer, and druid wasted spell after spell (and arrows) doing absolutely no damage at all
• Finally killed the dragon when the druid cast a wall of fire in the same spaces as it was, after it had been brought down to low enough hp that that was enough to take it out
• Noticed one toe-claw had been carved into a sort of key, and used that (once severed from his foot) to "fine-tune" the cubic gate to lead to his specific lair on the Plane of Shadows, instead of at some random location, and got a ton of treasure out of the deal

The DM admitted to having made several mistakes in running this adventure: first, he forgot we were 15th level PCs and set us up against a CR 19 dragon (old blue dragon = CR 18, shadow template he found online = +1 CR); he misinterpreted the sunbeam spell the druid had cast at it and told the player it was completely ineffective, when he meant it wasn't particularly susceptible to bright lights (not realizing on the Plane of Shadows, sunlight is in fact unnatural); the "man" dropping the shrink item cloth couldn't be seen immediately afterwards because he was just an illusion from the mislead spell (and how exactly do illusions carry and drop actual cloth items?). And it was also a bit of a DM faux pas to wait until after the wolf had bitten the dragon-in-human-form, rolled a threat, confirmed a crit, rolled maximum damage, and then, when the player was about to roll for a trip attack, suddenly announce that wait a minute, there's a 50% chance that never happened (he had just remembered the shadow template gives him concealment), only to have all of that suddenly undone. (My son and I, who have both run campaigns for this same group of players, each would have let the previous rolls stand and announce "I guess the wolf made it past the 50% miss chance this time" and pressed on.) But oh, well - live and learn.

(Of course, Law won't live and learn - he was slain by the dragon's line of lightning breath weapon in an attack on the paladin, celestial pegasus, and druid. Good thing the elf archer has a horse she doesn't ride anymore since gaining her carpet of flying!)

Johnathan

 

[Sulicius]

I had a really tough session on Wednesday, and not because Roll20 was out!One player had confided in me that he was not enjoying the campaign that much anymore because of some parts of how we played and behavior of other players. This was quite a blow to hear, since he is the last remaining player of my original group, and a high school friend of mine.So… we had a talk with the whole group.

Stuff like this is crazy tense to me, as he pretty much told other players he did not enjoy the way they play. He wanted more combat and a bit harder challenges, while the others enjoyed the role play more.

But things went well. We all looked for solutions instead of looking for blame, and we found a couple things to try. So we agreed on doing them for 5 sessions and see how we feel about it.I was so happy with how the conversation went (got some help from my sister), and now I really am excited for the next session.

s if it was supposed to be, we took a little break and Roll20 came back on. We had a cool fight, made easier because the party healed a god to help them, and ended with a sweet plan.The party is tricking two enemy factions into fighting each other with a fiendishly clever plan by one of the players, and had a clear idea of where they wanted to go next session.

Sadly, the player who had issues didn’t talk about it in a constructive way, and put the blame on other players during the talk. Now two other players both feel like they were unfairly judged for something that, even I agree, wasn’t their fault. I just know that talking about blame won’t get us anywhere.

D&D is awesome, but sometimes conflicting desires in the game makes things difficult. I hope the solutions we found will work out, and everyone will enjoy the game more.

 

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" game session, the PCs:

• Entered a dreamscape that was supposed to hold their dreamwalker instructor (a moogle named Mogo), only to find him missing
• Watched as the dreamscape altered to become an underground chamber with a summoning circle, in which a marilith was materializing
• Slew the marilith, at which point the dreamscape turned into a road, with a Large skeletal being (a shinigami) blocking the way, stating the PCs were likely those he'd been sent to find and destroy
• Slew the shinigami, at which point the dreamscape became a drow woman's bedroom and balcony, on which her vampire lover had arrived to feed
• Slew the vampire (with a single spell!), at which point the dreamscape became a vast desert with a Colossal monstrous scorpion rising up out of the sands
• Slew the scorpion only to have a second one rise up, but instead of having to fight that one as well, the dreamscape changed again...
• ...into a funeral parlor, with a black-clad woman placing a red rose upon each of five coffins; when she removed her veil, they recognized her as Robin, the bard girlfriend of the bard/rogue PC
• Opened the first three coffins and saw it was three of the five PCs
• Destroyed the five coffins with a blade barrier spell (being afraid the dead bodies of all five would rise up and attack once the coffins had all been opened)
• Had the dreamscape return to its blank configuration, with a human-faced, cobralike serpent hovering in the air before the PCs and telepathically telling them, <Remember>
• Watched as the dream naga vanished and Mogo took his place, frozen in time
• Watched as time "unfroze" for Mogo and it became apparent he had no idea he'd been frozen in time
• Questioned Mogo about dream nagas and learned they're mysterious beings with the full powers of dreamwalkers, who some say are the manifestation of the gods granting visions of the future through dreams
• Started worrying about how much of those dreamscapes were going to come true in their real futures

Johnathan

 

[James Gasik]

After the slog of the past two sessions, I decided to change things up a bit for this episode of "Unknown Lands".

Upon returning to Sturnheim, resting, and recovering (and doing a little light shopping), the party considered their options. With a few quests needing to be completed, they had several paths ahead, but then one of their allies, Cheriadoc "Cherry" Busybee, a Halfling adventurer and former Sapper in the army (which army, however, has yet to be revealed), had been left behind to investigate the city's aging sewer system, as the party Cleric, Tobias, hails from a world with higher technology than Lurra.

His plan was to create a water filtration plant, but during her investigations, Cherry came upon a small colony of telepathic Neo-Otyugh who had recently emigrated from the Underdark.

During their telepathic conversation, the N-O's discovered the plan to "cleanse" the sewers. Fearing that this might affect their livelihood (or even poison them), and incredibly wary of this "advanced science", the N-O's let the Halfling go, but only after warning her that they would defend themselves from this threat.

For her part, Cherry was able to gain a bit of information from the Neo-Otyughs- they were guarding a treasure that had been given to them by the Svirfneblin, and was presumably, quite valuable.

Cherry was only able to reach the deepest levels of the sewers (which mysteriously seem to predate the founding of Sturnheim) due to her slight build (being short even for a Halfling). She was able to convince the local alchemist to create a variation of a potion of diminution so that the party, reduced to 1/4 height for 2 hours, could reach the Neo-Otyugh's and negotiate with them- one way or another.

The sewers present several issues- they're dark, the stench is overpowering, requiring a Survival check every 15 minutes to prevent gaining the poisoned condition (until they could breathe good air for a length of time) and eventually gaining levels of exhaustion.

The tunnels were all difficult terrain unless you have a swim speed, and open wounds caused by piercing or slashing damage ran the risk of catching disease.

The first challenge came in the form of Osquips- mean rodent-like creatures the size of a small dog, with six legs and oversized jaws with spade-like teeth.

As a new feature, I gave the party the option between "easy" and "hard" encounters, with better rewards for hard. Of course, FOMO wouldn't let them choose anything but hard, but at least I gave them a chance!

Being CR 1/4's (and a few mutated 1/2's) against a level 5 party, the Osquips couldn't do much. The few lucky hits they got on the Warlock were Shielded away, and only the Fighter took any damage (and amazingly, caught disease, though the party had a lesser restoration to remove it).

Not for the first time, I contemplated the conundrum of AC in 5e. At low levels, it's easy to get too much, with enemies having a very hard time being a threat. But eventually, enemies do get massive accuracy making it much harder to rely on it.

As annoying as it is to watch the party laugh off minor threats, I remembered that was the point- it would be hard to rest down here, and every spell slot used now, was one that wouldn't be available later.

The second challenge as a bit harder, as they had to deal with strange, hard-shelled beetles who were completely blind, relying on blindsight alone to navigate. But despite this, they had an impressive ability to fire a 20' cone of bright light that could blind their enemies.

I always forget how badly being blind messes with spellcasters, and I quickly had to stop using the ability, damn the recharge rolls. As it was, the fight went longer than anticipated, and at some point, due to spells like moonbeam and spirit guardians, I had an encounter full of half-dead beetles and actually lost track of the hit point totals of each one, a problem I hadn't had in the previous fight.

After a few minutes, we got back on track, but the fight was annoying for some, brutal for others, and the back line mostly got away without a scratch. But some more spell slots were drained, and the Fighter got diseased (again!), which is going to be a big problem moving into the third encounter, which is one big monster- a Froghemoth (kind of, on "hard" it will have an assist from two swarms of carnivorous fish, CR 1/2 each)!

Which means that it might be scary, but it will probably fold quickly due to overwhelming action economy, lol.

---

Feeling the need for some feedback, I offered the party bonus xp to fill out a little survey about the house rules of the campaign. Which were liked, which were hated, which were oft-forgotten, and which seemed superfluous.

Three party members were happy to give feedback, two seemed like they could care less. Not sure what to take away from that.

Highlights: everyone likes bonus action potions. My rules for "fighting recovery" (a sort of "second wind" people can use to heal in combat by spending a Hit Die) not so much, because either A) they forget about it, B) they forget when they can do it, and C) they can just drink healing potions instead, lol.

Other low scoring rules included penalties for running out of Supplies in the field, and adjustments made to two-weapon fighting (since only the Fighter actually benefits from these).