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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jasper" data-source="post: 6961718" data-attributes="member: 277">The Dark Lord. The villain wins! I have just discovered how to get the villains to win. Give the McGuffin to the person who does not pay attention to what the dm says even if the dm repeats himself.  First problem, I had players trickle in form 630 to 7. Second problem, I did write up 2 info dumps of what Sybil, and Jenny Greenteeth were going to say. Even players who had been playing through most of the season did not pay attention to the write ups. (I even did 1 copy per player since one player complained the week before about every player not getting a copy.) Third problem which is minor but I had another dm bring a ninth level pc in just to farm the bracers/magic item. Story problems. During the Horseman both the Aya the elf, the wearer of purple, and the PC holding the Amber Locket (McGuffin) died. The PC was not raised due to background reasons, and the party did not care. Here is where the villain won. I grabbed an extra prop locket from my bag and told the player this was the locket of the Amber temple / clue episode. And it a focus item too. (Just said it was focus item to move the game along.)The party had problems since they had ninth thru fifth level pcs and 6 players making it a strong party. I threw in 2 mobs at the village to get the action started and get the players attention.  They blew thru the mobs and really started the game. The combat between the big kid and his naughty bear was easy for the group but they took the first short rest here. Since the group had no living female spell caster and the males pass on it. I took the ghost option. The rogue had the ghost with the blue gown from the Amber temple. So I had the player stay in the casting circle. The rogue could make attacks but movement was 0. They blew that encounter easy escaped thru the portal. AND TOOK a short rest outside the castle. Even with bumping the fights on the first floor, and letting them by pass the tower fight, the most damage done was with the traps.  The final fight. As I have done before, if there a timed component in the boss fight I will shorten the boss fight. This time I shorten the time of the final ritual from 9 rounds to 3.  The party stack up on the stairwell to boss fight and could not get rid of the animated armour. On the third round they were able to knock the armour thru the door and gain access at the bottom of turn 3 (the ritual is now complete).  Again, I told the monk the “locket is burning. Do not attack by present the locket”. Monk turn. Player is so worried about attacks of opportunity or taking damage, they swung at any critter that could hit the pc. And then missed Esmae on its final swing. I waited one more initiative then had Esmae throw the group a kiss and step thru a magic door. I then ended the game. Things that worked and not. Or things I discovered. General thoughts.The props for magic items worked. And taking pictures of me giving it to the players is working.I was offering a prize at the end of the season, this did not well. I was passing 1 token for showing up, 1 for final strike on BBEG, and 1 for MVP. This was in hopes of having a core group through the season. This did not work due real life work problems, personality conflicts, and people getting tired of 3.5 months of play. The winner did get her some “Auburn” dice. Note Auburn is a local college American football team.General props did not work. Or were too much of a hassle.I need to work on both my game rules knowledge and AL knowledge.  And module knowledge. Even with a week between games, I still miss stuff like the DC on the Amber locket. Taking all my lead and plastic figures does not work.  I am down to 1 tackle box of figures. Plastic, cardboard, and some lead.The location being in a busy Friday night game store with D&D, Magic and some pickup games does no work well. I will have to insure the players with hearing problems sit next to me. Not having my own copy of season was an issue. I did not want to write notes on the store copy. And bring the whole binder did not work. It got dumped to the floor twice and stuff was torn. Writing up a quick after action report and pictures and posting to face book works. I include the xp, Gp, renown, and downtime given. So if someone left early they know what they get.The title card works. Title card has in bold letters and font 16 plus, the title and number of adventure. My DCI on top half of sheet. Below the fold has the xp, Gp, renown, downtime, story awards, and magic item write up. This way I can pass around the table at the start as I get people logged in. At end I can fill in the blank and pass around the table as I packing up. My current load out is. Small AWOL bag – books, dice, small pencil box with sharpener 2 pens and pencils, loose book marks. 1 tin with my pc figure. Big AWOL bag- closed outside slot tact titles, big monster counter, unsharpened pencils, and give away dice. Mesh side outside slot wife makeup bag with pens, pencils, sharpener, erasers, dry erase markers, dry eraser, and timers. Inside bag throw blanket used as table cloth, module, Bag of hard candy cough drops, giant figures, miscellaneous. Prop bag – prop, roll of paper towels, roll of tp (in baggie), Lysol, Windex. Tackle box of figures. I do get some feedback, but more is needed. How I can get more, I do not know.  Thanks Pauper and you others for answering questions and giving comments.  Pictures and write ups of my games are on Facebook. I think it is Montgomery River Region Adventure league.</blockquote>

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