Is this fair? - confessions of a killer DM

[silentspace]

Okay, Just running this encounter through a very simple encounter calculator indicates that it was a CR 6 encounter. (eight CR 1 monsters, the two kobolds are each 1/6th, though i don't know how one being a black kobold affects it's CR.)

Your party is level 1.

Inputting these factors, yields the following information from the aforementioned calculator:

Effective Party level: 1.3
Encounter Level 6.1
Difficulty: Deadly
Advice to party: Run away!

For gods sake, give them something easier to cut their teeth on!

Uniform XP per character: 521
Treasure Value: 2070 GP

...and then they came back with reinforcements!

 

[Treebore]

I love the style of game your describing, but I bet your DM can still give the same sense of accomplishment and "earning it" by dropping things by a CR or two, and allowing more of you to survive and "earn it". But as long as everyone is having fun and enjoying cycling through the characters, more carnage!!

 

[el-remmen]

Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me - and I have both played in and run similar encounters. Check out my story hour sometime (see sig) to see some serious PC ass get kicked

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I was a player in the first two sessions, and I think the DM has been tough but fair. We were way over our head in the first session -- should have ran, and made a couple of tactical mistakes that cost us big, though we came close to winning our fight. A black dragon flying in and melting the sentry on the top of the Keep is a good indicator that you're in too deep -- but at that point it was too late to run. Session 2 was an outgrowth of session 1 -- we just couldn't get away from the army of lizardmen.

If I were to fault the DM at all, it would be to watch the ELs and adventure sequence a little closer. I believe we started with "Encounter at Blackwall Keep", which is a later adventure in the series. I'm not certain he intended the party to stay and fight at Blackwall -- I think we were supposed to run, which would have taken us to the first adventure (I think the shaft we encountered at the end of Session 2 was the entrance to the Whispering Cairn, though I'm not certain). But you can't always count on the PCs following that plan -- sometimes they just decide to be heroic!

Personally, I had fun with both sessions, though I'd expect frustration to set in after the third near-TPK.

 

[Kishin]

If this is Age of Worms, Encounter at Blackwall Keep (Which this must be, given the lizardfolk and the black dragon, who I assume is Ilthane and who actually doesn't show up till much later), the adventure is designed for 5th level characters, and your party is Level 1. So, the average CR of any encounter is likely to be four higher than the party's level, which is generally reserved for extremely difficult, 'boss style' encounters.

Yeah, I'd call running a party of Level 1 characters through a 5th level adventure unfair.

 

[JoeyD473]

If the players are ahppy, then it should all be good

 

[Zimbel16]

So was this fair? I swear I never fudged.

As long as the players are having fun, does it matter?

If you're looking to not have consistant risk of TPKs, I'd tend to reduce the ELs a bit. However, if the players like consistantly having this sort of challenge, go for it.

Frankly, I like this style of play (where players have to perform near-optimally just to survive). However, many people I've played with do not.

 

[Cadfan]

This is a situation where fair is what the players enjoy.

Personally, I'd drop out of the campaign on the grounds that I like to invest a bit in my characters, and doing that seems absolutely pointless in this campaign world. But I know a lot of people who would enjoy this sort of play and who would happily roll up Paladin Joe VII to replace Paladin Joe VI and keep on trucking. As long as everyone is having fun, who cares?

 

[Gold Roger]

Sounds like my kind of game.

I'm currently playing a 1st level game as well. Two PC's died in two sessions and currently all four PC's are on the run from a small horde of 13 goblins rogue1s, two fighter1/rogue1s and a dolgrim cleric3 (none of them have elite array, though) and bereft of any equipment. It's tough, but everyone has fun.

At first level you are rookies and can't just expect to run out and beat something. Imc at that point it's learn or die. You can't distinguish yourself by power, you have to do so by resourcefulness.

I understand that not everyone digs this approach, but in this case the players seem to do so. In that case such games can be a blast.

 

[howandwhy99]

Huh? When you wrote "AoW game," I thought that stood for "Age of Worms." But there are no encounters with lizardmen or kobolds in the Whispering Cairn. So I assume 'AoW' must stand for something else. Please enlighten me.

I used a nontraditional opening for the campaign. I'm running the path nonlinearly. The siege attack on Blackwall Keep worked well, but had some unexpected consequences.. basically the last 3 sessions. However, having some XP under their belts will help if/when they explore the first module. Others are in the area as well as non-AoW adventures, but it's okay as XPs been slowed. If it was normal, I'd have to run a linear campaign without swerving - dull in my mind. And not much room for player choice. The true successes of the last 3 sessions have been the choices made. And the players are getting better at it.

Send them after some dragons next...

The 30' black dragon was 1st session. Along with the 100 lizard army.

If I were to fault the DM at all, it would be to watch the ELs and adventure sequence a little closer. I believe we started with "Encounter at Blackwall Keep", which is a later adventure in the series. I'm not certain he intended the party to stay and fight at Blackwall -- I think we were supposed to run, which would have taken us to the first adventure (I think the shaft we encountered at the end of Session 2 was the entrance to the Whispering Cairn, though I'm not certain). But you can't always count on the PCs following that plan -- sometimes they just decide to be heroic!

Personally, I had fun with both sessions, though I'd expect frustration to set in after the third near-TPK.

Actually the first session and those after it I thought would be a siege or a TPK. Then it ended and things changed. The group elected to run overland and consequences followed based on choices made. I may have been too rough though, in retrospect. I'm predicticting the 4th session will bring the danger levels down from redline. At least I hope it does. The tone is horror. And Age of Worms is harsh. But there are plenty of safer places to explore, if the survivors get out from where they are.

The danger levels have been too (seemingly) unavoidably high for too long.