Northern VA - 4e D&D Worldwide Gameday - UPDATE 10 June

[D'karr]

I had a blast. It isn't often that I get the opportunity to play DnD all day, and I really enjoyed myself.

See this is the kind of stuff that I love to hear. I'm really glad people had a good time. There were some behind the scenes snags but nobody even noticed them. The Game Parlor stores are a great venue and they really did bend over backwards to support us. Rob and Cindy, the owners, are great people and deserve a hearty thank you. Also Craig Roberts who helped us in the ordering of materials and reserving space for us. Then there are those guys that run the stores on these days, the Staff, they really are the ones that support us on these days. So if you're at any of the stores look them up and say thank you for helping us organize this.

Rishi did an awesome job of herding the cats at Chantilly; giving me the opportunity to herd them in Woodbridge. A lot of the credit goes to him and definitely to all the DMs running those tables. If it wasn't for them we would not be getting the good reviews from players and DMs alike.

At the Woodbridge store we had a packed house, which is hard to do at that store simply because of its size.

I have to say that I'm tired now but I had an absolute blast yesterday. I enjoy DMing but on venues like these were we had some completely new people playing 4e for the first time ever, having them come up to us and thank us for the good time they had, is really awesome. I even have some grognard friends that commented that they wanted to play the adventures they were not able to play on that day. So yeah, even grognards can have a good time with this system.

I had one of the judges tell me that he thought he screwed up a specific encounter on an adventure. I kind of smiled because 4 of the players at that table had already come up to me and told me what a fantastic time they had. I just said, "if the players made it a point to come tell me what a fantastic time they had, I'm pretty sure that you did not screw it up..."

The tables I ran had some real funny moments, like the dwarf vs. black dragon wrestling match. I'd love to hear from the judges and the players some of those funny anecdotes.

 

[Ethernaut]

I ran an afternoon session of Into The Shadowhaunt at the Chantilly location. I had an amazing time. It was my first experience running 4e and now I can say with certainty that I approve of the new edition (I was leaning that way from the preview material but my experience playing at the DDXP was only so-so). The best thing, as usual, was the players. They forgave my occasional errors and jumped at the chance to really role-play with gusto (and that's saying something within the confines the adventure). And it was great to meet other gamers outside my usual group.

Thanks to everybody involved! I would certainly do it again.

 

[Direferret1000]

4E Gameday

Ditto here. My most memorable moments: The dwarf critting Helvac after misseng everything else (I'm not kidding he did not touch the hobgoblins or skeletons) killing him instantly. The fighter in second group getting KO'd 3 times in the battle against the white dragon. And on the last round after be healed by the cleric (via first aid), getting the last two killing blows. All in all, I had a good time myself. THe system has a much higher dramatic flair (characters are heroic rather than just like everyone else) than the previous editions. It was also easier to run by comparison.

 

[D'karr]

Of dragons and men (mice)

During one of the adventures one of the players decided that the best way to get a black dragon to come out of the darkness was to grab him and pull him. It was amusing, to say the least. The dragon tore him up but that dwarf saved the day for the other players that were then able to run and escape.

The fight against the White Dragon was classic. There were two characters lying dead on the snow after failing their 3 death saves. There were two others unconcious and dying. The dragon was inside the tower slowly regaining his strength when the wizard, with just a few hit points left, finally struck the dragon and killed it. Overall it was a very tough fight, but the players had a great time.

 

[D'karr]

THe system has a much higher dramatic flair (characters are heroic rather than just like everyone else) than the previous editions. It was also easier to run by comparison.

This here ^, has been my experience as well. I've been DMing a long running campaign for several years and I've had a blast. But over the last 3-4 levels it has become a drag for me to DM, simply because of the cumbersomeness of the higher level play.

4e has given me a huge reinvigorating desire to continue DMing 3.x and complete the current campaign so I can make a clean switch to 4e.