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<blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 6173767" data-attributes="member: 18333"><p>August 23, 2013 Session 2nd level August Playtest of D&DNext</p><p></p><p>We continued our mini-campaign in Travensburg and played for about 2 ½ hours. </p><p></p><p>Squeak, the Halfling rogue thief. </p><p></p><p>Erkas, the Dwarven Druid</p><p></p><p>Nalcon, the Human Lightbringer Cleric, a noble</p><p></p><p>Fid, the Dwarven Fighter, an ex blacksmith</p><p></p><p>Kleeeg, the Human Barbarian of the North</p><p></p><p>Fawnsworth, the Forest Gnome Mage, an ex-Jester</p><p></p><p>Previously, the group had captured an evil mage who turned out to be Marsam Trembler. He vowed that his brother and his gang of Orcs would rise up against the village. In order to give Marsam a fair trial, which Nalcon insisted upon, the Regent and the Captain of the guards agreed to hold Marsam (and his Orc companion) in the brig until dawn. Then they would assemble a tribunal. The adventurers were uneasy, especially Erkas, so he decided to climb a tree near the village road and spend the night on watch, sleeping when he could. Fid invited everyone back to his humble abode, all except for Nalcon, who seems too tidy and arrogant at this point for some of the others. Nalcon paid for one of the best rooms at the inn. The night passed uneventfully, it seemed as if Marsam’s words were just empty threats.</p><p></p><p>When the party gathered to set off to find Marsam’s brother and his band of Orcs, Nalcon never showed up so the party went hunting without him. (Nalcon’s player couldn’t make the session so Nalcon overslept, and when he woke up, he decided to help the Regent and the Captain of the guards run the tribunal).</p><p></p><p>The party found where they encountered Marsam and the Orcs, and they followed tracks in the snow to the south through a forest of pines. Coming to a clearing, they scanned the area and saw some rolling, snow covered hills to the south and west. Fid was lucky enough to spot a cave opening to the west, so the group decided to head for the cave, especially after seeing many humanoid footprints heading to and from that direction. To obscure their numbers and possibly distract any creature at the cave, Fawnsworth whipped up an illusion of a mound of snow that moved slowly in front of them. The group was able to get within 40’ of the cave when Fid saw some movement within. Erkas, decided he would turn into a hound and sneak up to the cave. He did so, and he was even able to nuzzle up closer to a pair of Orcs who seemed to be joking with each other. To distract, and lure the Orcs out, Erkas bit at one Orc’s belt pouch, and tried to snatch it. The Orcs were amused by the dog’s attempt, but instead of taking arms, the Orc just beat the dog on the head with its bare fist. The dog started to beg, so the Orc threw a piece of meat at it, but as Erkas (the dog) was nibbling at the meat, he saw 3 other Orcs behind the two, and two of them picked up bows. It looked like they wanted some target practice. Erkas bolted from the cave and turned south as 3 Orcs followed him; still the Orcs did not ready their axes, it seemed as if they wanted to have sport with the dog, perhaps just catch him or beat him with bear hands. This gave the others a great chance to ambush..and they did just that. Unfortunately, Erkas was the only one who knew there were two more Orcs in the cave, so as the others were fighting the 3 Orcs in the clearing, arrows began flying out, injuring Squeak. When the fight began, the dog danced around, dodging around and through the legs of the Orcs, and when he was clear, because Fid and Kleeeg engaged with the Orcs, he turned on one and ripped at its achilles tendon, and in the succeeding round, the dog ripped out the Orc’s throat. Eventually all but one of the Orcs outside went down, and the remaining Orc yelled to his buddies in the cave in Orcish, “Go get help. We are under attack.” Fawnsworth could speak Orcish, so he alerted the others. The battle moved closer to the cave and Fid could see that one of the Orc bowmen was running deeper into the cave. He would have gotten away too, except for that pesky dog. The dog bounded towards the Orc and took him down with a vicious bite. It was dark inside the cave, but now it was quiet. At the back of the cave, Fid saw a crude wooden wall with a swinging 5’ door in it. It seemed as if this was a passage into a more finished ruin.</p><p></p><p>Although the party wanted to rest and bandage its wounds, they feared they would not have time so Erkas (still in dog form) crept through the door and down a more finished corridor. He could see some light flickering in the distance in a larger room adjacent to the hall, so he went back to the group to report. After a brief discussion, Erkas crept forth again. It seemed as if the other room was a storehouse and Orcs were lifting and stacking boxes and barrels so they did not notice the dog. Luckily for him, as he got closer to the storehouse, he was able to spot a trip wire as he neared the other room so he stepped gingerly over it. Then, he hid behind a bunch of boxes and waited for the others to call the Orcs forth. Fawnsworth and the others discussed a plan to use an illusion of an Orc to draw the Orcs to the door where the party could attack from surprise, but as they were discussing, one of the Orcs from the other room started to walk towards the door they were behind. There were a number of openings in the crude wall and door, so Fid and the others could see through it. They realized they had no time, so when the Orc got to the door, Fid swung the door open violently smashing the Orc in the face. The Orc was strong enough to push the door back though and then the commotion drew a few more of the Orcs. Seeing how Fid did this, little Squeak tried to do the same, but alas, her strength was not enough to cause the Orc harm. To clear the door area, Fawnsworth used his fear spell, and the others breached the doorway. Inside the room, Erkas kept hidden and watched. He saw one of the other Orcs hide behind some boxes, and the final Orc went to another door to the east and started to open it. Meanwhile, as each of the heroes tried to move into the storehouse, Fid first, Squeak next, and then Kleeeg, none of them spotted the trip wire, and each of them stumbled and fell into the storehouse. Erkas jumped at the hidden Orc, but missed so the Orc turned to slash the dog badly. Attempting to change the dynamics of the situation, Fawnsworth issued forth a brilliant spray of colors; unfortunately, none of the Orcs were affected, yet one of the others was still under the influence of the fear spell so it ran and joined the other escaping Orc.</p><p></p><p>In a dramatic moment, Erkas, turned himself back into Dwarf form and cured himself. The fight continued, as the others got to their feet and tried to dispatch remaining Orcs. After taking another wound, Erkas blasted the Orc that injured him with a Thunderwave. The Orc resisted the major effects of the blast, but took some damage. Then, it raised its wicked great axe (a hit would surely have knocked Erkas out of the battle), but the blade swung harmlessly over Erkas’ head. Squeak, took down an Orc with an accurate bow shot, and then the others faced down two remaining Orcs in the east doorway, while two others kept running deeper down a corridor in the ruined stronghold. At this point, Erkas and Fid were pretty badly wounded, but Fid’s adrenaline pumped and he continued to attack the 2 Orcs…he also took a few more wounds, so it looked pretty grim. Kleeeg had seen enough, he began to rage, and he cut down an Orc, and continued to run after one of the fleeing Orcs. Although Kleeg could not catch up to the fleeing Orc, he nocked an arrow in his longbow and let fly before the Orc could round the corner. The arrow stuck squarely into the Orcs back as it toppled to the ground. Unfortunately, one other Orc had escaped to the north around a corner. </p><p></p><p>When the battle ended, the group realized they were hurting, so they tried to fortify their position inside the storeroom and take a short rest. Squeak was able to remove the trip wire and set it up to the east so if Orcs came at them, it might trip them up. In 10 minutes (before the group could gain any benefits from resting), more Orcs attacked, but all 4 of them hit the trip wire and fell….that gave the party a surprise round to fire arrows or move into position. To hamper the Orcs more, Erkas used his final spell, Entangle, which grasped 2 of the 4 tightly (at least for the first round). The battle played out, and the heroes defeated the Orcs before any of them could run. Bloody and exhausted, the group finished resting in the storehouse, and luckily no other Orcs arrived. </p><p></p><p>As they rested, they saw a corridor turning to the north (where the other Orcs ran) and directly to the east, another small corridor that ended at a door, blockaded from their side with some wood tables and other scraps. It looked as if the Orcs wanted to keep this door barred. In the storehouse, the boxes contained an assortment of crude weapons, some old armor, picks, shovels, 4 bottles of lamp oil, 4 lamps, boxes of rations, 10 barrels of wheat, 3 barrels of fresh water and 3 barrels of ale. It looked as if this was where the bandits stored the spoils of their plunder. Fid, using his merchant experience, estimated that all of the stuff could be worth about 400 gp if they could get it back to town, but more importantly, the rations and the wheat could help feed the villagers who were getting hungrier and hungrier as winter continued. Each PC used a HD of healing to bind some wounds, and Fawnsworth studied his spellbook to recall 1 more spell.</p><p></p><p>Comments</p><p></p><p>Smooth game play. Lots of room for improvising and making decisions that are not listed on PC character sheets.</p><p></p><p>Although I used only Orcs as foes, the Orcs were varied. Some of them wielded shortsword and dagger, some were the greataxe wielders, and a few others were longsword and shield. Changing weapons made each feel different in combat.</p><p></p><p>Without the cleric (and because the Druid did not play his PC like a healer), the group did not have as much healing, so this session felt a little more gritty. The players snuck around more and tried to set up defensible positions or ambushes. I like that style of gameplay a lot.</p><p></p><p>As DM, I originally didn’t like that short rests were 1 hour, but I’m not so against it now. My players don’t like it that much though. Knowing that the rest was 1 hour did add a little more decision making into the adventure, and it gave me a chance to attack the party as it tried to rest (to be fair though, even if it was a 10 minute rest, I could have had the reinforcements interrupt…but whatever).</p><p></p><p>The illusionist did not like Color Spray. It seems to be a much inferior spell to what an evoker (burning hands) would use. Only affecting the creatures for 1 round and having random results makes it a poor choice unless the party is in a horrible position where they are severely outnumbered (any foe who sees the spray has a chance to save…so that could cause a room full of baddies to make saves). If it allowed the caster to choose the effect and the effect lasted until the foes made a save, it would be a better, more versatile spell.</p><p></p><p>Fire seeds spell also seems a little wimpy as a cantrip. Since the Druid makes 2 attack rolls with the seeds, maybe each should do 3 points or 1d4.</p><p></p><p>As always, my summaries are only approximations of the game session.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rhenny, post: 6173767, member: 18333"] August 23, 2013 Session 2nd level August Playtest of D&DNext We continued our mini-campaign in Travensburg and played for about 2 ½ hours. Squeak, the Halfling rogue thief. Erkas, the Dwarven Druid Nalcon, the Human Lightbringer Cleric, a noble Fid, the Dwarven Fighter, an ex blacksmith Kleeeg, the Human Barbarian of the North Fawnsworth, the Forest Gnome Mage, an ex-Jester Previously, the group had captured an evil mage who turned out to be Marsam Trembler. He vowed that his brother and his gang of Orcs would rise up against the village. In order to give Marsam a fair trial, which Nalcon insisted upon, the Regent and the Captain of the guards agreed to hold Marsam (and his Orc companion) in the brig until dawn. Then they would assemble a tribunal. The adventurers were uneasy, especially Erkas, so he decided to climb a tree near the village road and spend the night on watch, sleeping when he could. Fid invited everyone back to his humble abode, all except for Nalcon, who seems too tidy and arrogant at this point for some of the others. Nalcon paid for one of the best rooms at the inn. The night passed uneventfully, it seemed as if Marsam’s words were just empty threats. When the party gathered to set off to find Marsam’s brother and his band of Orcs, Nalcon never showed up so the party went hunting without him. (Nalcon’s player couldn’t make the session so Nalcon overslept, and when he woke up, he decided to help the Regent and the Captain of the guards run the tribunal). The party found where they encountered Marsam and the Orcs, and they followed tracks in the snow to the south through a forest of pines. Coming to a clearing, they scanned the area and saw some rolling, snow covered hills to the south and west. Fid was lucky enough to spot a cave opening to the west, so the group decided to head for the cave, especially after seeing many humanoid footprints heading to and from that direction. To obscure their numbers and possibly distract any creature at the cave, Fawnsworth whipped up an illusion of a mound of snow that moved slowly in front of them. The group was able to get within 40’ of the cave when Fid saw some movement within. Erkas, decided he would turn into a hound and sneak up to the cave. He did so, and he was even able to nuzzle up closer to a pair of Orcs who seemed to be joking with each other. To distract, and lure the Orcs out, Erkas bit at one Orc’s belt pouch, and tried to snatch it. The Orcs were amused by the dog’s attempt, but instead of taking arms, the Orc just beat the dog on the head with its bare fist. The dog started to beg, so the Orc threw a piece of meat at it, but as Erkas (the dog) was nibbling at the meat, he saw 3 other Orcs behind the two, and two of them picked up bows. It looked like they wanted some target practice. Erkas bolted from the cave and turned south as 3 Orcs followed him; still the Orcs did not ready their axes, it seemed as if they wanted to have sport with the dog, perhaps just catch him or beat him with bear hands. This gave the others a great chance to ambush..and they did just that. Unfortunately, Erkas was the only one who knew there were two more Orcs in the cave, so as the others were fighting the 3 Orcs in the clearing, arrows began flying out, injuring Squeak. When the fight began, the dog danced around, dodging around and through the legs of the Orcs, and when he was clear, because Fid and Kleeeg engaged with the Orcs, he turned on one and ripped at its achilles tendon, and in the succeeding round, the dog ripped out the Orc’s throat. Eventually all but one of the Orcs outside went down, and the remaining Orc yelled to his buddies in the cave in Orcish, “Go get help. We are under attack.” Fawnsworth could speak Orcish, so he alerted the others. The battle moved closer to the cave and Fid could see that one of the Orc bowmen was running deeper into the cave. He would have gotten away too, except for that pesky dog. The dog bounded towards the Orc and took him down with a vicious bite. It was dark inside the cave, but now it was quiet. At the back of the cave, Fid saw a crude wooden wall with a swinging 5’ door in it. It seemed as if this was a passage into a more finished ruin. Although the party wanted to rest and bandage its wounds, they feared they would not have time so Erkas (still in dog form) crept through the door and down a more finished corridor. He could see some light flickering in the distance in a larger room adjacent to the hall, so he went back to the group to report. After a brief discussion, Erkas crept forth again. It seemed as if the other room was a storehouse and Orcs were lifting and stacking boxes and barrels so they did not notice the dog. Luckily for him, as he got closer to the storehouse, he was able to spot a trip wire as he neared the other room so he stepped gingerly over it. Then, he hid behind a bunch of boxes and waited for the others to call the Orcs forth. Fawnsworth and the others discussed a plan to use an illusion of an Orc to draw the Orcs to the door where the party could attack from surprise, but as they were discussing, one of the Orcs from the other room started to walk towards the door they were behind. There were a number of openings in the crude wall and door, so Fid and the others could see through it. They realized they had no time, so when the Orc got to the door, Fid swung the door open violently smashing the Orc in the face. The Orc was strong enough to push the door back though and then the commotion drew a few more of the Orcs. Seeing how Fid did this, little Squeak tried to do the same, but alas, her strength was not enough to cause the Orc harm. To clear the door area, Fawnsworth used his fear spell, and the others breached the doorway. Inside the room, Erkas kept hidden and watched. He saw one of the other Orcs hide behind some boxes, and the final Orc went to another door to the east and started to open it. Meanwhile, as each of the heroes tried to move into the storehouse, Fid first, Squeak next, and then Kleeeg, none of them spotted the trip wire, and each of them stumbled and fell into the storehouse. Erkas jumped at the hidden Orc, but missed so the Orc turned to slash the dog badly. Attempting to change the dynamics of the situation, Fawnsworth issued forth a brilliant spray of colors; unfortunately, none of the Orcs were affected, yet one of the others was still under the influence of the fear spell so it ran and joined the other escaping Orc. In a dramatic moment, Erkas, turned himself back into Dwarf form and cured himself. The fight continued, as the others got to their feet and tried to dispatch remaining Orcs. After taking another wound, Erkas blasted the Orc that injured him with a Thunderwave. The Orc resisted the major effects of the blast, but took some damage. Then, it raised its wicked great axe (a hit would surely have knocked Erkas out of the battle), but the blade swung harmlessly over Erkas’ head. Squeak, took down an Orc with an accurate bow shot, and then the others faced down two remaining Orcs in the east doorway, while two others kept running deeper down a corridor in the ruined stronghold. At this point, Erkas and Fid were pretty badly wounded, but Fid’s adrenaline pumped and he continued to attack the 2 Orcs…he also took a few more wounds, so it looked pretty grim. Kleeeg had seen enough, he began to rage, and he cut down an Orc, and continued to run after one of the fleeing Orcs. Although Kleeg could not catch up to the fleeing Orc, he nocked an arrow in his longbow and let fly before the Orc could round the corner. The arrow stuck squarely into the Orcs back as it toppled to the ground. Unfortunately, one other Orc had escaped to the north around a corner. When the battle ended, the group realized they were hurting, so they tried to fortify their position inside the storeroom and take a short rest. Squeak was able to remove the trip wire and set it up to the east so if Orcs came at them, it might trip them up. In 10 minutes (before the group could gain any benefits from resting), more Orcs attacked, but all 4 of them hit the trip wire and fell….that gave the party a surprise round to fire arrows or move into position. To hamper the Orcs more, Erkas used his final spell, Entangle, which grasped 2 of the 4 tightly (at least for the first round). The battle played out, and the heroes defeated the Orcs before any of them could run. Bloody and exhausted, the group finished resting in the storehouse, and luckily no other Orcs arrived. As they rested, they saw a corridor turning to the north (where the other Orcs ran) and directly to the east, another small corridor that ended at a door, blockaded from their side with some wood tables and other scraps. It looked as if the Orcs wanted to keep this door barred. In the storehouse, the boxes contained an assortment of crude weapons, some old armor, picks, shovels, 4 bottles of lamp oil, 4 lamps, boxes of rations, 10 barrels of wheat, 3 barrels of fresh water and 3 barrels of ale. It looked as if this was where the bandits stored the spoils of their plunder. Fid, using his merchant experience, estimated that all of the stuff could be worth about 400 gp if they could get it back to town, but more importantly, the rations and the wheat could help feed the villagers who were getting hungrier and hungrier as winter continued. Each PC used a HD of healing to bind some wounds, and Fawnsworth studied his spellbook to recall 1 more spell. Comments Smooth game play. Lots of room for improvising and making decisions that are not listed on PC character sheets. Although I used only Orcs as foes, the Orcs were varied. Some of them wielded shortsword and dagger, some were the greataxe wielders, and a few others were longsword and shield. Changing weapons made each feel different in combat. Without the cleric (and because the Druid did not play his PC like a healer), the group did not have as much healing, so this session felt a little more gritty. The players snuck around more and tried to set up defensible positions or ambushes. I like that style of gameplay a lot. As DM, I originally didn’t like that short rests were 1 hour, but I’m not so against it now. My players don’t like it that much though. Knowing that the rest was 1 hour did add a little more decision making into the adventure, and it gave me a chance to attack the party as it tried to rest (to be fair though, even if it was a 10 minute rest, I could have had the reinforcements interrupt…but whatever). The illusionist did not like Color Spray. It seems to be a much inferior spell to what an evoker (burning hands) would use. Only affecting the creatures for 1 round and having random results makes it a poor choice unless the party is in a horrible position where they are severely outnumbered (any foe who sees the spray has a chance to save…so that could cause a room full of baddies to make saves). If it allowed the caster to choose the effect and the effect lasted until the foes made a save, it would be a better, more versatile spell. Fire seeds spell also seems a little wimpy as a cantrip. Since the Druid makes 2 attack rolls with the seeds, maybe each should do 3 points or 1d4. As always, my summaries are only approximations of the game session. [/QUOTE]
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