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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JEB" data-source="post: 9370016" data-attributes="member: 10148">Reviewing the second (and final) one-shot...Players: Five total. Everyone returned from the previous one-shot, except for one of the players whose only previous experience had been 5e. The new player (who had missed the previous one-shot) also only had experience with 5e, as far as I know.Characters:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Two of the returning players brought back their characters from last time: both 3rd-level elf magic-users. One of the two also became the "caller" for this session.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The third player replaced last session's dead dwarf fighting-man with a 1st-level human cleric. (Though in retrospect I think he ran him as a dwarf, even though that wasn't a PC option in 0e.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The fourth player forgot his surviving human fighting-man from last time, so he also had to roll up a new character (1st-level human cleric).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The fifth (new) player rolled up a 1st-level human cleric.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hussy the mule also returned.</li> </ul>Gameplay summary: The players made three forays into the dungeon, adjusting their tactics each time.The first time, they hired some orcs men-at-arms from another tribe. Despite fairly good terms on offer, the orcs reacted negatively. However, because this was a one-shot and that result was not fun (especially after expending a few hundred gold just to make the attempt), I overrode it and had them sign on anyway (the only time I didn't follow procedures as written). Only the two new clerics were chaotic, and each could have three hirelings, for a total of four heavy foot and two archers. (Half were very loyal, half were not.)Shortly after entering Castle Redcrown, they and a random encounter group (34 orcs) surprised each other, and a melee ensued. Three of the four orc heavy foot died quickly, as did the new player's cleric. (Surprisingly, the orc hirelings' morale held.) Thanks as usual to burning oil and sleep spells, the party was victorious (though one character injured themselves when they poured oil into an already-burning puddle, and it flared up). The party retreated back to town with their (damaged) loot.The new player (after some convincing) rolled up his second character, a halfling fighting-man. The two remaining clerics leveled up to 2nd (so they finally had one cure spell each). In addition to even more oil, the party stocked up with poisonous belladonna, and began coating their weaponry with it to force saves vs. poison. (They also half-jokingly considered burning it to create hallucinogenic gas - belladonna can apparently have this effect in real life!) With the two chaotic characters dead, the orc men-at-arms departed, and the party didn't have the gold to search for more hirelings. They played the rest of the session very conservatively.On their next foray, they snuck into the entryway, and one magic-user used ESP to determine that orc patrols were waiting for intruders behind either exit door. They filled nearly the entire entrance room with oil (using Hold Portal to make sure they couldn't be interrupted), then unleashed a torrent of insults until the orcs charged in... and lit the room on fire and burned them all. They collected their (again damaged) loot, returned to town, sold it, and refreshed.In their last foray, they returned to the orc's lair, down the long hallway. Using ESP, one magic-user determined that the orcs were (understandably) nervous, and waiting inside for the next attack. The party once again filled the hallway with burning oil, then the other magic-user used Phantasmal Forces to create an illusion inside the orcs' lair (the rules don't say you need line of sight) of a burning skull exploding into flame. Nearly all the orcs (except leader-types) failed their saves and ran out in a panic. When the oiled hallway was lit aflame, it did kill the wave of orcs running down there... but while there were sounds of others running off in the darkness, those orcs were taking other escape routes. (Walking down the hallway with a lit torch to see what was going on didn't help.) By the time the party checked the lair, all was quiet beyond the doorway... but they simply spiked the door shut and withdrew.Meanwhile, the cleric (former dwarf fighter) was guarding the other doorway at the entrance. Despite his vigilance, he somehow didn't notice as the spikes were gently pushed out, and an angry leader-type orc broke the door down and attacked. Unfortunately for the orc, the cleric had been waiting to light another patch of burning oil in the doorway... then the halfling's belladonna-coated crossbow finished him off ("deadly accuracy with missiles" indeed!). A much-diminished orc patrol followed the leader-type once the flames died down, but two waves of Sleep spells took care of them. One more orc patrol walked by, and considered attacking... but their morale failed them and they retreated. Rather than take further risk, the party left the dungeon for the last time...Comments:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I suppose Gygax wasn't wrong that leveling under the original boxed set rules was too fast - the experienced players got to 4th level after just two sessions. That said, I feel like that was only fair, considering the high lethality...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For whatever reason, the dice gave us way more random encounters this time... all orc patrols, since the number-appearing on the level was a few hundred. (Taking cues from Book III, I divided them into patrols of 34 orcs each scattered around the level.) By the end it was getting very hard for me to justify the orcs continually picking fights with the party (hence having the last group of orcs just nope out).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The caller did propose intimidating the orcs into surrendering during the last foray, but was talked out of it by the rest of the party.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Didn't have to improvise as much this time, except for the aforementioned oil flare-up (save vs. dragon breath).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The new player (who almost quit after the first character's death) agreed with most of the others that 5e was vastly preferable. Though he also appreciated seeing how the original game worked.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I was personally disappointed that the grind of dealing with so many random orc encounters kept the players from exploring the rest of the dungeon, and also made them so cautious that they never entered the (now-abandoned) orc lair... which actually contained some treasure!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">We may consider one more session in Castle Redcrown this fall... using a more integrated party of 5e characters, to see how well they do in comparison.</li> </ul>EDIT: Corrections, I initially forgot a few important details:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There was a delay getting the fire started in the first foray when they threw a torch, and it missed the oil patch.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Both new clerics (the one made by the new player, and the one made by the player who forgot his old sheet) died during the first foray. The other cleric that died (the latter's character) was replaced by a nearly identical heir.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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