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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Melkor" data-source="post: 1086705" data-attributes="member: 10786">I just finished DMing the first D&D game my group has played in a year. If you have followed any of my recent posts, you know that It was a last ditch effort to get my gaming group back together, and that I've been planning for the session for about a month.I was originally set on using 3.0 with a few elements from 3.5 thrown in, but after reading the issue of Dragon (the one that included the DM's Screen), I decided to go ahead and throw caution to the wind. I went with the idea of using 3.5 and converting all of my 3.0 material on the fly. I figured I should at least try out the new edition before throwing it to the curb.So the game started, and the player's seemed to be into it. They spent quite a bit of time just roleplaying their initial meeting. After that, they moved on and had two minor combat encounters.....The thing is, things got a little loose a little too fast...I fealt as if I was 'winging it' a bit too much. I was fudging a roll here and there (behind the DM screen), to keep the character's alive and keep the action from bogging down. When I couldn't remember a rule, I was making a quick decision and moving on.The players didn't even get through 10% of what I had planned for the evening, but they all enjoyed it, and said they would love to play again. I take that as a good sign, and came away with a few interesting items:1) I didn't get a good feel for 3.5 because I didn't get down to the nitty gritty of most of the rules. I let things slide, and I played without being the anal rules lawyer I used to be. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, my players had fun. On the other hand, I don't like running such a 'loose' game.2) What I did learn of 3.5 seemed better than I thought it would be. It feels like it's a little easier to play than 3.0.3) I don't remember all of the D&D rules as well as I did a couple of years ago (even though I read the 3.5 PHB as soon as it came out). Need to polish up.4) The Darkness spell is a pain in my a@@. One of the character's cast darkness on a rock, and through it in the path of a fully armored dwarf moving through difficult terrain. I ruled that the character had to make a balance check to keep his footing.....That was all well and good, but then it became a confused melee with several fighters engaging in the area of the Darkness, and it just got to be a bit difficult to keep track of.5) I'm glad to be playing again. Even if I am the DM. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Cheers.</blockquote>

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