UnknownAtThisTime
First Post
The tl:dr version is at the bottom......
Over the Holidays, I had an opportunity to expose several youngsters to D & D via the Red Box. I had purchased it for US $13, wrapped it in gift wrap, and brought it along to an extended family gathering. I had not had the chance to ever read the red box material, although I obviously knew the general contents. I also downloaded some of the sample chareacters from WotC, but I failed my Intelligence DC and forgot to print them and I forgot to bring extra character sheets.
There were several potential targets of my subterfuge, so I picked one (a young teen), and cleverly wrote on the tag:
To: "UnknownAtThisTime"
From: "The Victim's Name"
When I grabbed the gift, I told "The Victim" to open it, so I could gauge their reaction and willingness to give playing a shot. It was clear he did not know exactly what it was, but that it was some sort of game. He opened the box, and I directed him to the Player's Book, where he started reading the introduction.
A moment later, he looked at me and said "I don't really understand this", but he didn't put the box down, and did not seem like he wanted to give up - yet.
However, I knew that my "window of opportunity" in selling the game was small, so I opted to step in rather than having the individual go through the solo character creation process. I asked 3 others if they would like to learn to play, so the Victim, two younger cousins, and one older one trotted off to start the character creation process. At this point, all 4 players seemed willing.
I took the box from the Victim, dumped out the contents, and handed him his first set of dice. I caught a sparkle in his eye. I took out my dice bag and handed all the other players a set they could borrow. EACH of them quickly looked at the dice and almost instintively ordered them from d4 to d20 in front of themselves.
[Rules Lawyers Need not read any further]
I briefly explained race and class, and asked them to pick their own based on my quick descriptions. Through very minor guidance, we ended up with a Halfling Rougue, a Elf Cleric, and a brother sister team of Human Wizard and Human Fighter. Truly, they gravitated to classic roles almost on their own. I had brough my PC type minis along, and we found minis for each of them.
I gave them each an array of ability scores, and we went around the table filling in their scores with bonus attributes. I explained primary and secondary abilities, briefly discussed alignment (one would not list 'good' - there is always one in every party
), went over trained skills, and then we simply equipped them as we wished with standard equipment.
Finally, I handed out the power cards, and we calculated attack and damage. [Bear a few things in mind: ALL my characters have always been CB created
, I am unfamiliar with detailed Essentials classes, there were four new players, I had no chance to review the Player's Book, and I wanted to ensure this did not drag out too long.] So, I am fairly sure the players had an extra power here and there, and their Attack rolls might have been off by a point. After 45 minutes or an hour, we took a short break to get ready for 'the adventure'.
During this break, the 'non players' made comments like "You haven't even started the game yet?" and "How long does that take to set up?". I used this 15 minutes to start reading the twisting halls adventure from the Dungeon Masters Book, and punching tokens for the first few encounters.
I called the players back and explained that a merchant named Traevus had hired them to retrieve a "black box" from some goblins that had attacked a merchant caravan. Traevus did not disclose many details (because I did not know them
) and did not disclose the contents of this box. This was all the plot hook they needed. They assumed they were brought together as mercenaries to retrieve the merchants goods, and they set off toward the first encounter (crossroads ambush).
The encounter went very smooth. One of the players had some PC/WoW background, and he helped direct traffic. I am unfamiliar with WoW, but I think he even used gaming terms like "tank" to accurately portray some simple roles and tactics and help the others be effective. The combat went very smooth, they quickly grasped ideas like flanking and ensuring the squishy wizard was out of harm's way while the fighter took damage and the cleric healed him. Although they did not stay very "in character" during combat , they were very quick and decisive in their choices, and the combat was efficient. My 'Victim' quickly grabbed strategy and on the FIRST bad guy computed and tracked the bloody value and remaing hit points without me prompting that this was 'important to try and know exactly how many HP he has left. He started with between 36 and 40''. A power gamer is born.
Near the end of combat, one asked "does it all take place on this map?". As combat concluded, the answer was clear, and they began to get familiar with the concept of encounters, rest, exploration and even a little role playing. I could see the understanding coming quickly for each of them.
I'll spare the blow by blow, but suffice it to say, they cleared out the Twisting Halls over the course of 8(?) or so hours spread over two days. They wanted to check out everything - often multiple times. I have never seen more perception and arcana checks. Every portal was a possible door to a new level. Every font of water must have had some mystical property. These kids were in the game, and asked me several times if we could start playing again while I was taking my own "short and extended rests".
Once they had captured the skull and cleared the halls, they immediately started discussing what to do with it, and how to approach Traevus. They were legitimately dissapointed when I essentially told them their introduction to the game was done, and we had to pack up the red box. They simply would not let me off the hook, and we spent a short while on some possible RP scenarios about how that discussion with Traevus might go, and what they would hypothetically choose to do next. At this point I also explained how pre published adventures worked, home brews, the work a DM performs, etc.
The "Victim" took the red box with him. I am not sure if he intends to bring the game to his friends, or read through it himself.
I might bring them back together to continue the adventure, and see what Traevus was really up to with that skull. But that is for another time.
General Observations/Occurences:
Over the Holidays, I had an opportunity to expose several youngsters to D & D via the Red Box. I had purchased it for US $13, wrapped it in gift wrap, and brought it along to an extended family gathering. I had not had the chance to ever read the red box material, although I obviously knew the general contents. I also downloaded some of the sample chareacters from WotC, but I failed my Intelligence DC and forgot to print them and I forgot to bring extra character sheets.
There were several potential targets of my subterfuge, so I picked one (a young teen), and cleverly wrote on the tag:
To: "UnknownAtThisTime"
From: "The Victim's Name"
When I grabbed the gift, I told "The Victim" to open it, so I could gauge their reaction and willingness to give playing a shot. It was clear he did not know exactly what it was, but that it was some sort of game. He opened the box, and I directed him to the Player's Book, where he started reading the introduction.
A moment later, he looked at me and said "I don't really understand this", but he didn't put the box down, and did not seem like he wanted to give up - yet.
However, I knew that my "window of opportunity" in selling the game was small, so I opted to step in rather than having the individual go through the solo character creation process. I asked 3 others if they would like to learn to play, so the Victim, two younger cousins, and one older one trotted off to start the character creation process. At this point, all 4 players seemed willing.
I took the box from the Victim, dumped out the contents, and handed him his first set of dice. I caught a sparkle in his eye. I took out my dice bag and handed all the other players a set they could borrow. EACH of them quickly looked at the dice and almost instintively ordered them from d4 to d20 in front of themselves.
[Rules Lawyers Need not read any further]
I briefly explained race and class, and asked them to pick their own based on my quick descriptions. Through very minor guidance, we ended up with a Halfling Rougue, a Elf Cleric, and a brother sister team of Human Wizard and Human Fighter. Truly, they gravitated to classic roles almost on their own. I had brough my PC type minis along, and we found minis for each of them.
I gave them each an array of ability scores, and we went around the table filling in their scores with bonus attributes. I explained primary and secondary abilities, briefly discussed alignment (one would not list 'good' - there is always one in every party
), went over trained skills, and then we simply equipped them as we wished with standard equipment. Finally, I handed out the power cards, and we calculated attack and damage. [Bear a few things in mind: ALL my characters have always been CB created
, I am unfamiliar with detailed Essentials classes, there were four new players, I had no chance to review the Player's Book, and I wanted to ensure this did not drag out too long.] So, I am fairly sure the players had an extra power here and there, and their Attack rolls might have been off by a point. After 45 minutes or an hour, we took a short break to get ready for 'the adventure'. During this break, the 'non players' made comments like "You haven't even started the game yet?" and "How long does that take to set up?". I used this 15 minutes to start reading the twisting halls adventure from the Dungeon Masters Book, and punching tokens for the first few encounters.
I called the players back and explained that a merchant named Traevus had hired them to retrieve a "black box" from some goblins that had attacked a merchant caravan. Traevus did not disclose many details (because I did not know them
) and did not disclose the contents of this box. This was all the plot hook they needed. They assumed they were brought together as mercenaries to retrieve the merchants goods, and they set off toward the first encounter (crossroads ambush).The encounter went very smooth. One of the players had some PC/WoW background, and he helped direct traffic. I am unfamiliar with WoW, but I think he even used gaming terms like "tank" to accurately portray some simple roles and tactics and help the others be effective. The combat went very smooth, they quickly grasped ideas like flanking and ensuring the squishy wizard was out of harm's way while the fighter took damage and the cleric healed him. Although they did not stay very "in character" during combat , they were very quick and decisive in their choices, and the combat was efficient. My 'Victim' quickly grabbed strategy and on the FIRST bad guy computed and tracked the bloody value and remaing hit points without me prompting that this was 'important to try and know exactly how many HP he has left. He started with between 36 and 40''. A power gamer is born.
Near the end of combat, one asked "does it all take place on this map?". As combat concluded, the answer was clear, and they began to get familiar with the concept of encounters, rest, exploration and even a little role playing. I could see the understanding coming quickly for each of them.
I'll spare the blow by blow, but suffice it to say, they cleared out the Twisting Halls over the course of 8(?) or so hours spread over two days. They wanted to check out everything - often multiple times. I have never seen more perception and arcana checks. Every portal was a possible door to a new level. Every font of water must have had some mystical property. These kids were in the game, and asked me several times if we could start playing again while I was taking my own "short and extended rests".
Once they had captured the skull and cleared the halls, they immediately started discussing what to do with it, and how to approach Traevus. They were legitimately dissapointed when I essentially told them their introduction to the game was done, and we had to pack up the red box. They simply would not let me off the hook, and we spent a short while on some possible RP scenarios about how that discussion with Traevus might go, and what they would hypothetically choose to do next. At this point I also explained how pre published adventures worked, home brews, the work a DM performs, etc.
The "Victim" took the red box with him. I am not sure if he intends to bring the game to his friends, or read through it himself.
I might bring them back together to continue the adventure, and see what Traevus was really up to with that skull. But that is for another time.
General Observations/Occurences:
- I knocked them unconscious 2 or 3 times. they did ask "what happens if I die", and seemed genuinely invested in these quick characters that they had pieced together in a few minutes.
- I fudged a few rolls (and more importantly withheld some monster powers) when things were not going well for them.
- It takes approximately two encounters for new players to learn that they want to take an extended rest as often as the DM will "allow" it. (They referred to it as their "safe place", and I did not have the heart to interrupt their too "frequent" retreats to replenish surges and powers). The worst I could muster was sending some 'wandering monsters' in their way as they traveled back to their 'safe place'.
- If you are familiar with the Twisting Halls: they actually dispatched the Necromancer and recovered the skull before seeing a few rooms. On their way out, they went through the chess room (which I loved running). The Rogue wondered why they wouldn't just leave since they had the skull allready (obviously a fair point). The Wizard needed to "clear the level". Video Game habits die hard.
- I use Alea tools. They were very good at marking conditions and remembering effects - something I am terrible at doing.
- I neglected to mention XP until the 2nd battle. Once that cat was out of the bag, they were very keen on getting XP from me right away. Even though I knew we would make it just to second level at best (we did right before our final encounter), this was immediately of vital importance to the group and they demanded we add HPs, change surge values, adjust attack rolls, etc....
