I finally got some folks together and gave the game a try. I've been wanting to do so since the launch, but my former game group(s) had split up due to a combination of scheduling issues, personality conflicts, burnout, and of course edition wars.
A friend had a birthday yesterday so about 11 days ago a couple of us decided to hold a game for his b-day and also treat him to dinner at a decent restaurant.
Prep time: Coming up with a delve type game took me about 2 hours (or less) total prep time, not counting the 10 hours it took for me to build the entire thing on multiple tables using dwarven forge sets. I had to clear my living room to get the tables in and I build slow since I work from a mental map when building, and I like to fiddle with the astetics.
Note: I normally don't use most of my dwarven forge stuff due to the time and space it takes. This was a special occasion.
The 1st level party consisted of a human bard, a human monk, a half-orc barbarian, and a dragonborn fighter. The 5th plaer could not make it or they would have had a halfling cleric.
The opening battle was a mixed cliche - started with a meeting in a tavern and their patron was assassinated by attacking goblins for a nifty bar fight.
1 Goblin hexer level 3, 1 goblin blackblade level 1, one goblin sharpshooter level 1, and 5 goblin cutter minions level 1. All of the goblins, except the hexer, died, and the hexer escaped with a scroll case the party needed.
The players at first had a tough time figuring out how to handle the fight and it was thought to be a tough battle. Two characters ended up down before things ended. In later fights they figured out that powers compliment each other and they cleaned house.
In the second encounter the party had to deal with a skill challenge mixed with a combat. I wish I had had a better handle on the skill challenge. I figured out afterward that getting tension into it would require a different technique. The concept was that a goblin had activated an ancient dwarven steam powered machine and was using it to try to break a stone dame to release an underground water source to further flood the cavern. There already was a stream filled with flesh eating fish (needlefang drake swarm reskinned as fish) that was difficult terrain. Flooding the carven would make the whole area difficult and the stream section challenging terrain as well, and would have released a second swarm of the fish. Meanwhile a goblin acolyte of Maglubiyet (level 1) was defending the exit across the stream, and had set the bridge on fire (zone, fire damage, plus ongoing fire).
My mistakes with the skill chalenge failed to create the proper tension, but they got the point and after a few fits and starts managed to easily save the dam and beat the goblins. They did find out how nasty those fish were when the dragonborn got pushed into the water and rapidly bloodied before getting to shore.
They later caught up with the hexer and managed to beat him and convince him working with them was for the benefit of his life and the survival of his tribe (lucky natural 20's in that skill challenge). And then they went into the final encounter.
The final encounter involved 16 skeleton minions coming out of burial chambers along with a 4th level elite blue dragon wyrmling.
The party had one member drop and get brought back up during the final battle, and came close to having 3 drop. They worked together very well now that they understood the teamwork concept of 4e.
Over-all everyone had fun and said they learned a lot about the mechanics of 4e during play. I had deliberately tried to include as many things as I could to include a very wide variety of the mechanics so we could learn as much as possible.
A friend had a birthday yesterday so about 11 days ago a couple of us decided to hold a game for his b-day and also treat him to dinner at a decent restaurant.
Prep time: Coming up with a delve type game took me about 2 hours (or less) total prep time, not counting the 10 hours it took for me to build the entire thing on multiple tables using dwarven forge sets. I had to clear my living room to get the tables in and I build slow since I work from a mental map when building, and I like to fiddle with the astetics.
Note: I normally don't use most of my dwarven forge stuff due to the time and space it takes. This was a special occasion.
The 1st level party consisted of a human bard, a human monk, a half-orc barbarian, and a dragonborn fighter. The 5th plaer could not make it or they would have had a halfling cleric.
The opening battle was a mixed cliche - started with a meeting in a tavern and their patron was assassinated by attacking goblins for a nifty bar fight.
1 Goblin hexer level 3, 1 goblin blackblade level 1, one goblin sharpshooter level 1, and 5 goblin cutter minions level 1. All of the goblins, except the hexer, died, and the hexer escaped with a scroll case the party needed.
The players at first had a tough time figuring out how to handle the fight and it was thought to be a tough battle. Two characters ended up down before things ended. In later fights they figured out that powers compliment each other and they cleaned house.
In the second encounter the party had to deal with a skill challenge mixed with a combat. I wish I had had a better handle on the skill challenge. I figured out afterward that getting tension into it would require a different technique. The concept was that a goblin had activated an ancient dwarven steam powered machine and was using it to try to break a stone dame to release an underground water source to further flood the cavern. There already was a stream filled with flesh eating fish (needlefang drake swarm reskinned as fish) that was difficult terrain. Flooding the carven would make the whole area difficult and the stream section challenging terrain as well, and would have released a second swarm of the fish. Meanwhile a goblin acolyte of Maglubiyet (level 1) was defending the exit across the stream, and had set the bridge on fire (zone, fire damage, plus ongoing fire).
My mistakes with the skill chalenge failed to create the proper tension, but they got the point and after a few fits and starts managed to easily save the dam and beat the goblins. They did find out how nasty those fish were when the dragonborn got pushed into the water and rapidly bloodied before getting to shore.
They later caught up with the hexer and managed to beat him and convince him working with them was for the benefit of his life and the survival of his tribe (lucky natural 20's in that skill challenge). And then they went into the final encounter.
The final encounter involved 16 skeleton minions coming out of burial chambers along with a 4th level elite blue dragon wyrmling.
The party had one member drop and get brought back up during the final battle, and came close to having 3 drop. They worked together very well now that they understood the teamwork concept of 4e.
Over-all everyone had fun and said they learned a lot about the mechanics of 4e during play. I had deliberately tried to include as many things as I could to include a very wide variety of the mechanics so we could learn as much as possible.
But it sounds like you guys had a lot of fun- do you think you're going to continue the game as a campaign?
