D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Richards]

Today's adventure was a lot of fun for the players, as they got to test out their Gamma World powered armor and mechs against an army of goblins, orcs, and orogs - plus they finally found an answer as to who's been sending these armies every 6-8 months to ransack the local kingdoms and where do they go in the meantime? Next adventure - our last in this campaign - won't be until July but we'll get to go take the fight to the enemies' home base for a change...and they probably won't be expecting a half dozen "technological golems" coming to call!

Johnathan

 

[Libramarian]

I am beginning to tire of the linear nature of the Avernus campaign anyway. If it was just an adventure, it would be fine, but the idea of forcing the players to follow one breadcrumb to the next for another 5 months really fills me with dread.

Reminds me of something I've been wondering about. Is it possible to infer from a transcript of play (such as the session recaps posted here) whether the adventure felt sandboxy or railroady to the players, or do you have to be a participant in the game to perceive that?

I suspect linear adventures produce transcripts that sound more awesome than they actually were to play.

 

[Nebulous]

CoS. PCs got to meet Blinsky and his toys! That was super fun, the players enjoyed it.

 

[the Jester]

We just finished up. It was a fantastic session- the finale of my 5e version of Keep on the Shadowfell. The pcs had one remaining encounter to finish the adventure- the confrontation with Kalarel the Vile, priest of Orcus, and his final few minions. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but the encounter features a portal to Orcus' realm that just needed one more life sacrificed to open. That sacrifice turned out to be Kalarel himself when the pcs slew him- a hand reached out and dragged him through, and the barrier closing the portal began to grow thin. One of the pcs used an action to peer through and saw Orcus standing there, waiting to enter the Prime Material Plane. Unbeknownst to them (because they missed one encounter where they could have learned the details), they had the necessary stuff to close it- three dragon statuettes representing Bahamut, which flared with light as the portal thinned.

The pcs could have closed the portal by throwing them into it, but even though they were blazing and hot, they didn't realize it until one of the three characters holding them leapt into the portal in hopes of slowing Orcus long enough for the others to flee (she even said, "Fly, you fools!" as she did so). The statuette released an incandescent explosion of light and the surface of the portal developed a spiderweb of cracks, like breaking glass.

In just an instant, Orcus slew her, but it meant that he didn't use his action that round to break through into the Prime.

That gave the others just enough time to hurl their statuettes in, too, and that shattered the portal, leaving Orcus bellowing in rage in the Abyss.

It was a hell of a session, and one hell of a noble sacrifice. Absolutely the best end to any pc in my 5e game yet. Fantastic.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

We just finished up. It was a fantastic session- the finale of my 5e version of Keep on the Shadowfell. The pcs had one remaining encounter to finish the adventure- the confrontation with Kalarel the Vile, priest of Orcus, and his final few minions. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but the encounter features a portal to Orcus' realm that just needed one more life sacrificed to open. That sacrifice turned out to be Kalarel himself when the pcs slew him- a hand reached out and dragged him through, and the barrier closing the portal began to grow thin. One of the pcs used an action to peer through and saw Orcus standing there, waiting to enter the Prime Material Plane. Unbeknownst to them (because they missed one encounter where they could have learned the details), they had the necessary stuff to close it- three dragon statuettes representing Bahamut, which flared with light as the portal thinned.

The pcs could have closed the portal by throwing them into it, but even though they were blazing and hot, they didn't realize it until one of the three characters holding them leapt into the portal in hopes of slowing Orcus long enough for the others to flee (she even said, "Fly, you fools!" as she did so). The statuette released an incandescent explosion of light and the surface of the portal developed a spiderweb of cracks, like breaking glass.

In just an instant, Orcus slew her, but it meant that he didn't use his action that round to break through into the Prime.

That gave the others just enough time to hurl their statuettes in, too, and that shattered the portal, leaving Orcus bellowing in rage in the Abyss.

It was a hell of a session, and one hell of a noble sacrifice. Absolutely the best end to any pc in my 5e game yet. Fantastic.

I love that ending to KotSf. Feels really meaningful, even to lower level characters.
That said, I have also heard that it's an adventure that needs some tweaking - what did you do to "fix" it, if anything?

 

[the Jester]

I love that ending to KotSf. Feels really meaningful, even to lower level characters.
That said, I have also heard that it's an adventure that needs some tweaking - what did you do to "fix" it, if anything?

Spoilers for KotS ahoy!

Well- it is pretty flawed in a lot of ways. Basically nothing the pcs do (in the module as written) makes any difference to the way the story unfolds, except perhaps in that final encounter. It's kind of on rails. One of my main criticisms about it has to do with an encounter at an excavation site, where the bad guys are digging for... something, something that is never revealed but is supposed to be crucial to Kalarel's plans. Yet whether the pcs defeat the bad guys there or never even have the encounter in the first place, the rest of the module goes the same way. It's a pretty unfortunate aspect of the adventure. Another frequently leveled criticism has to do with a particular npc being too tough for the pcs, leading to many TPKs.

My run of it in 5e avoided both of those by not using the basic setup of the adventure-as-written and skipping everything but the dungeon under the keep itself.

As written, the actual dungeon is only about 60-70% of the adventure. There are preliminary threads that lead the pcs to it after they first have some other encounters. The forces led by Kalarel are threatening a nearby town, there's a kobold lair, etc.

I used none of that.

In my game, the pcs were traveling with a halfling baker named Hembletopp, and as they were setting up camp one evening, his nostrils flared and he declared that he smelled a precious and amazing ingredient being cooked- a mushroom called a fat lurker. The pcs found a goblin encampment, defeated them, and interrogated one of them, who told them that the lurkers came from the dungeon below a ruined keep. So in my game, the pcs' whole actual quest was to find these mushrooms for Hembletopp.

As they went deeper in and confronted more of Kalarel's minions, they gradually learned about him. The deeper they went, the more fat lurkers they found. So their whole enmity with him grew over time as they encountered more and fouler minions of his.

When they finally got to the final encounter, they had already effectively stopped his scheme. That portal to Orcus wasn't going to open without another sacrifice. The entrance to the room they fought Kalarel in was via an open hole in the floor of the room above, with bloody chains descending into it. When they found the hole, they could hear someone- Kalarel- weeping below. They called out, maybe thinking he was a prisoner initially, but he immediately stopped crying and invited them to come down, claiming that it was "glorious" and "magnificent" down there. One of the pcs- a hadozee- glided down and the fight started.

So basically, I ditched the module's first third and all the plot elements that weren't in the dungeon itself, and completely changed the reason and method of the pcs finding the keep in the first place.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Spoilers for KotS ahoy!

Well- it is pretty flawed in a lot of ways. Basically nothing the pcs do (in the module as written) makes any difference to the way the story unfolds, except perhaps in that final encounter. It's kind of on rails. One of my main criticisms about it has to do with an encounter at an excavation site, where the bad guys are digging for... something, something that is never revealed but is supposed to be crucial to Kalarel's plans. Yet whether the pcs defeat the bad guys there or never even have the encounter in the first place, the rest of the module goes the same way. It's a pretty unfortunate aspect of the adventure. Another frequently leveled criticism has to do with a particular npc being too tough for the pcs, leading to many TPKs.

My run of it in 5e avoided both of those by not using the basic setup of the adventure-as-written and skipping everything but the dungeon under the keep itself.

As written, the actual dungeon is only about 60-70% of the adventure. There are preliminary threads that lead the pcs to it after they first have some other encounters. The forces led by Kalarel are threatening a nearby town, there's a kobold lair, etc.

I used none of that.

In my game, the pcs were traveling with a halfling baker named Hembletopp, and as they were setting up camp one evening, his nostrils flared and he declared that he smelled a precious and amazing ingredient being cooked- a mushroom called a fat lurker. The pcs found a goblin encampment, defeated them, and interrogated one of them, who told them that the lurkers came from the dungeon below a ruined keep. So in my game, the pcs' whole actual quest was to find these mushrooms for Hembletopp.

As they went deeper in and confronted more of Kalarel's minions, they gradually learned about him. The deeper they went, the more fat lurkers they found. So their whole enmity with him grew over time as they encountered more and fouler minions of his.

When they finally got to the final encounter, they had already effectively stopped his scheme. That portal to Orcus wasn't going to open without another sacrifice. The entrance to the room they fought Kalarel in was via an open hole in the floor of the room above, with bloody chains descending into it. When they found the hole, they could hear someone- Kalarel- weeping below. They called out, maybe thinking he was a prisoner initially, but he immediately stopped crying and invited them to come down, claiming that it was "glorious" and "magnificent" down there. One of the pcs- a hadozee- glided down and the fight started.

So basically, I ditched the module's first third and all the plot elements that weren't in the dungeon itself, and completely changed the reason and method of the pcs finding the keep in the first place.

Very cool plot driver. I remember that room with the chains that led down there when we played in 4e. And yes, all those other things outside the dungeon, like the Kobold lair. We had fun - but mainly because it was the first time we were gaming as a group again since like 2000.

 

[Azzy]

My last session was supposed to be the first session of a new campaign where I take over the DM's chair again (to give the previous campaign's DM a breather, and time too plot the next phase of his campaign. This, however, this is a death flag in my group—several of our DMs—including me—have "taken breaks" before... and never restarted the campaign).

However, last session didn't get off the ground because one player had to work (he was the one incensed about this—he's not even supposed to work evenings on that day). Next session is going to be a miss, too, as another player is celebrating his wife's birthday and going camping with her. Real life always takes priority over gaming as far as I'm concerned, but I think it's rather comical.

This, on the bright side, does give me more time to read over my materials, plan, and prep. Which is good because it's something I've been rather lax on doing.

Most of the players in my group (including me) have been playing the Neverwinter MMO relentlessly (a side effect of the pandemic), so I came up with the idea to translate our NW characters into 1st-level D&D characters. Hence, I'm running a game in the Forgotten Realms for the first time (I'v played in it, but that was just before the Time of Troubles annoyed me to the Realms). This will also be the first time I've run a published adventure since the late Eighties, too—I'm trying to integrate Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak into a single adventure., and tie it to the NW characters by starting as a quest given by Sergeant Knox of Neverwinter (a familiar NPC and quest-giver in NW).

So, since my last session was a bust, I got to bore you guys with what I'm planning for my next session (whenever that will be ).

 

[Bitbrain]

LAST SUNDAY WE RESUMED PLAY!!!

The PCs were hired to explore the Glass Plateau of the Mournland. Approaching the city of Making, they fought three animated pools of mercury and a figure wearing stain-glass armor. After defeating these foes, the PCs crossed a bridge and were attacked by a number of geometric shapes, but the Orc Cleric successfully banished the bizarre enemies before battle could commence. After this, the PCs made friends with a village of Shardminds.

The Warlock and Wizard also did some research into the Warlock’s patron, and concluded that said patron is trying to advance Eberron’s technology to the point where she can manifest in the present, because she’s a future evolution of technology. A literal Deus Ex Machina.

They put forth the theory that said patron is opposed to the Lord of Blades because the two are on different “techno-evolutionary tracks” competing with each other for dominance.

Out-of-game, my adopted sister (who is playing the Orc Cleric) put two-and-two together and announced “guys, we’ve been playing in a Time Travel campaign since the very beginning!”

 

[DammitVictor]

Nuclear meltdown. The combination of the players' overall unfamiliarity with the AD&D rules, my abject stupidity-- trying to use all of the AD&D rules at once-- and unfamiliarity/technical difficulties with roll20 brought the entire session to a screeching halt just after the halfway point. We spent an hour trying to untangle some nonsense with one player's character sheet and I was just done.

I've been working on an Old School Essentials conversion that I was hoping to sell my players on in a couple of weeks; instead, the game is now on hiatus until such time as those rules are ready to go.