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Scorch's Story Hour AKA The Endhome Six (updated 6/18/04)
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<blockquote data-quote="Scorch" data-source="post: 1453935" data-attributes="member: 1502"><p>Hello all,</p><p></p><p>This is the first game I have DMed in about four to five years and the first in DnD since my high school days.</p><p></p><p>I chose Barakus because it is a starter mega-module for levels 1 through 5. I am trying to stick as closely to the original source material as possible since I want to concentrate on learning the rules rather than creating a campaign world. Though I may do that later if we keep with these characters.</p><p></p><p>Occasionally I will chime in here to give some behin the scenes notes for those of you who want to take up the heavy mantle of DM.</p><p></p><p>Some initial recollections:</p><p></p><p>1) I stuck to the encounter tables in the books but didn't play it like the monsters sprung out of the ground and attack for no reason. The grimlocks were scouting and spotted the caravan. They were debating what to do when Absinthe took a potshot at one and that pretty much initiated combat. The one hot head grimlock pretty much got the other three killed. Things looked a bit grim at one point for the party as the cleric went down and the fighter was rapidly approaching 0 hit points. The party's dice were failing them and mine were ascendant. I would have had Horace jump into combat but then the worm turned and my dice started rolling crap and everyone else's started rolling better. The odds always even out in the end.</p><p></p><p>2) I also rolled up 6 goblins but it would be insane for them to attack a caravan so I played them as a hunting party who the elf rogue spotted up at a river crossing cleaning a recent kill. She just watched them and they heard the approaching caravan. They wisely decided that they did not want to mess with such a big caravan and took off.</p><p></p><p>3) The giant bee I rolled up was protecting a newly formed hive near the side of the road. If I had rolled up more than one then there would have been combat but some quick thinking on Ravenspur's part distracted it. After it followed the dancing lights into the woods and the spell expired I rolled a d6 to see how many minutes until it returned to the hive. I rolled a five so the caravan got past without incident. I awarded half XP for the encounter.</p><p></p><p>4) The two gnolls were rolled up during night. Once again it would have been insane for them to attack so I used it as a humorous interlude with some information about the Wizard's Tower passed on.</p><p></p><p>5) The dragon was me rolling a 108 on the encounter table... heh heh. Strictly speaking the adult red dragon is not meant to be an encounter but more of flavor text and a reminder as to why Fool's Pass is not very safe. The party played the sequence very wisely so as not to attract attention to themselves.</p><p></p><p>All in all I was very impressed at how the meepites played first level characters. After almost four years of gaming in third edition we got through the game with minimal rule hunting and guess work.</p><p></p><p>One thing that I cannot stress enough is be prepared ahead of time. I had a timeline worked for both random encounters as well as set ones. This was meant as an intro adventure to get the party to Endhome, set the tone, and maybe drop some hints for adventure seeds. Having a plan in place was good but I realized that I was taking too long to get them to Endhome so I adlibbed a bit here and there to pick things up. Don't be afraid to improvise.</p><p></p><p>Scorch</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scorch, post: 1453935, member: 1502"] Hello all, This is the first game I have DMed in about four to five years and the first in DnD since my high school days. I chose Barakus because it is a starter mega-module for levels 1 through 5. I am trying to stick as closely to the original source material as possible since I want to concentrate on learning the rules rather than creating a campaign world. Though I may do that later if we keep with these characters. Occasionally I will chime in here to give some behin the scenes notes for those of you who want to take up the heavy mantle of DM. Some initial recollections: 1) I stuck to the encounter tables in the books but didn't play it like the monsters sprung out of the ground and attack for no reason. The grimlocks were scouting and spotted the caravan. They were debating what to do when Absinthe took a potshot at one and that pretty much initiated combat. The one hot head grimlock pretty much got the other three killed. Things looked a bit grim at one point for the party as the cleric went down and the fighter was rapidly approaching 0 hit points. The party's dice were failing them and mine were ascendant. I would have had Horace jump into combat but then the worm turned and my dice started rolling crap and everyone else's started rolling better. The odds always even out in the end. 2) I also rolled up 6 goblins but it would be insane for them to attack a caravan so I played them as a hunting party who the elf rogue spotted up at a river crossing cleaning a recent kill. She just watched them and they heard the approaching caravan. They wisely decided that they did not want to mess with such a big caravan and took off. 3) The giant bee I rolled up was protecting a newly formed hive near the side of the road. If I had rolled up more than one then there would have been combat but some quick thinking on Ravenspur's part distracted it. After it followed the dancing lights into the woods and the spell expired I rolled a d6 to see how many minutes until it returned to the hive. I rolled a five so the caravan got past without incident. I awarded half XP for the encounter. 4) The two gnolls were rolled up during night. Once again it would have been insane for them to attack so I used it as a humorous interlude with some information about the Wizard's Tower passed on. 5) The dragon was me rolling a 108 on the encounter table... heh heh. Strictly speaking the adult red dragon is not meant to be an encounter but more of flavor text and a reminder as to why Fool's Pass is not very safe. The party played the sequence very wisely so as not to attract attention to themselves. All in all I was very impressed at how the meepites played first level characters. After almost four years of gaming in third edition we got through the game with minimal rule hunting and guess work. One thing that I cannot stress enough is be prepared ahead of time. I had a timeline worked for both random encounters as well as set ones. This was meant as an intro adventure to get the party to Endhome, set the tone, and maybe drop some hints for adventure seeds. Having a plan in place was good but I realized that I was taking too long to get them to Endhome so I adlibbed a bit here and there to pick things up. Don't be afraid to improvise. Scorch [/QUOTE]
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