As a player:
* Hoard of the Dragon Queen, group 1
We played every other week (with a handful of sessions cancelled due to weather, work, family, illness, or vacations) from early Dec '14 - Oct '15. We achieved 5th lv & were just starting the caravan trek. Then we decided to take a break from HotDQ due to the chaotic nature of the holiday season.
(in this adventure I've got both a 1/2ling land Druid & a 1/2Elf Ranger, played alternately as the DM wills)
* Not wanting to completely not play during Nov/Dec, one of the other players took over DMing a goofy, humorous, homebrew adventure for whom ever could make it come game night. He assures us that we're about 1/2way through.
When we're finished (about the end of Feb. probably) we may/may not resume the HotDQ adventure. Santa brought the current DM both PotA & OotA for Christmas, both of wich he's interested in running. So we'll definitely play something....
(in this game I'm a violently deranged gnome pirate who hates the monarchy. He often uses his minor illusion ability to make it look like he's wearing an eye patch. The patch is not always on the same eye.... Class wise? I'm a 2nd lv Monk)
* Hoard of the Dragon Queen, group 2 - We played weekly, Jan '15 - early Aug '15, 2hrs/session.
(I began the game with a Warforged Fighter with the noble {knight} background & had a trio of gnome servants following me. We joked they were my pit crew. Eventually the gnomish pit crew upgraded me to Eldritch Knight status.
)
We achieved 4th lv & were just beginning the caravan trek when the game collapsed. It will NOT resume.
This game was plagued from the start by 3 players work schedule problems. This was step #1 of the games demise.
It was so bad that during the raider camp section the DM had everyone create a 2nd character so that there'd always be at least 4 PCs adventuring at a time. (I introduced my 1/2ling druid here - it was the only thing I had ready to go on a moments notice as it just happened to still be on my clipboard from Sunday)
This was step #2 in the demise.
And then 1/2way through the dungeon we added a 6th player to the group - who turned out to be one of the true problem players that nobody should ever have at their table....
And then a week later his older brother who turned out to be a nice guy but totally inept player.
The fight in the caves at the raiders camp took us 5 weeks to get through. During wich time the extra characters were added to the mix, characters died, & their replacements spawned. (there was a large fight where within two sessions 7? completely NEW characters popped in/out/died & were replaced! (My eldritch Knight got his head stomped flat by a fatal crit, so my 3rd PC was one of his gnomes who rushed in to try & "salvage" him.) Some knew each other, some didn't. Shear chaos. From an in-character PoV the only way to determine friend from foe was: Is that guy attacking me or some PC that I know? If yes, kill them. If no, target something else.... ) This was not fun. Made less so by the problem player.
This was the third strike in ending the game.
Following the Cave of Chaos, we had a "down" week of RP where the Harpers & Order of the Gauntlet recruited us to infiltrate the caravan.
Then I missed a session when I went to GenCon '15.
The following week the DM wasted every ones time/gas by running a pointless 35 minute ogre encounter & when it died, announced that this was it, the game was officially finished. A text would've sufficed.
As the DM;
Back around Easter '15 a couple of us who get together down at the shop to play various minis games decided to take a break from war games & play something else for a bit. We decided on an RPG. 5e was chosen and as nobody but I had any xp with it, I was tapped to DM.
So it's been running nearly every Fri evening since, 6:30pm-10pm.
The game, though continuous, has a pretty clear divide line in it.
Part one:
I started things off by running "The Forest Oracle" from 1e. With LOTS of detail added.
We had
*a Human vengance Paladin who'd just recently escaped captivity in the Feywyld,
*a Dragonborn (wild) sorcerer with the entertainer background who wore a stuffed dragon costume & lusted after treasure/beautiful things,
*a pretty typical wood elf Ranger - the most serious character
*a Human Warlock charlatan?/criminal? who was pretending to be a minor nobleman - slightly evil,
*a Human Bard who was always stoned & came into the game with a Horn of Valhalla NOT keyed to bards.... He claimed it was broken.
*a Human NPC healbot Cleric - sometimes played by the store owner on slow evenings.
Much RP wackiness ensued along the trek to enlist the aid of the Druids.
*The paladin wrestled an ogre to death,
*the Dragonborn chased the nymph & was struck perma-blind (fixed later by the druids),
*the characters (except the pally) joined in on a booze/drug/magic/chaos fueled Satyr party being hosted at the Wildwood Inn,
*Then, after they'd recovered the next day, the party undertook a side-trek to rescue the inn keeps oldest daughter whom the satyrs had abducted
(this involved 1st shrinking down to 3 3/4" size so they could enter the lair of a pseudo dragon nesting under the inn via rat tunnels. The PsDr was a friend & fey pact patron of the youngest daughters and could supply some much needed divination help. The Warlock though decided to try & kill/loot the dragon, nearly succeeded, stole its loot, earning the party a unique enemy),
*On the return trip from the druids the party ran afoul a skeletal knight & a flock of fledgling Perytons - a callback to a game/encounter I'd run years before (the last time I ran this module) that some of them had heard tales of IRL.
*They dealt successfully with the Gypsies - who I use as Vistani en-route to Gryphon Hill to lay the groundwork for Ravenloft (I6)/Ravenloft II (I10). What was stolen? Parts of The apperratice from I10.
At the end of this adventure we lost 3 of the players. 2 because of work/summer schedules (they tend to game more in the winter months), & 1 because he determined he doesn't like 5e.
So the Ranger & DB (& NPC cleric) decide to follow up a side quest I'd given hints at. They found the hatch leading into the 1e module Lost Island of Castanimier.
Eventually escaping the tower, minus the cleric - but now with the warlock daughter of the inn-keep in tow - (she's an adventurer! And her pseudo-dragon mentor sent her to shadow the party & retrieve its stolen loot!) the party finds themselves on the beach at the start of "Souls for Smugglers shiv". Vol.1 of the Serpent Skull PF AP. They are 3rd lv.
Here we have an influx of people all looking to play 5e! So we gain 4 players. (we started them at 3rd lv)
Sadly Smugglers Shiv claims more souls.... The party is nearly TPKd in the sumken temple.
The sole surviving character is a 1/2elf sorcerer + the warlock NPC. They escape via ship & are now lv 4.
Part two:
New characters are rolled except for the 1/2elf sorcerer. lvs are also rolled randomly on a d3. The warlock NPC is no longer involved.
Every time a new edition comes along I run B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands.
This time the PCs are involved when the Wild Hunt sucks them into a mass battle against the masses of monsters the Cult of Evil Chaos is amassing in this cave system.
The 1st session opens with MASS (though simplified) combat on a huge map of the canyon floor. Combat ends when the last PC falls.
(the purpose of this is to see how many of the monsters the PCs/good guy forces can cull. Dead monsters are subtracted from the lairs perminently. The Players don't know this. But they do a really good job. They aren't even told WHY they're fighting.)
The next session begins with assigning xp & all characters waking up on a battlefield after a long rest with buzzards & koblods picking about.
This adventure ends with the complete destruction of several (all ready mauled) tribes & an assault on the temple complex.
It's learned that the Cult is actually a surviving remnant from the 1e Temple of Elemental Evil (T1-4) whos been slowly building its strength over the decades....
Clues are missed that would lead the party to playing either the original ToEE or the new PoTA. (More will be found later if they fit)
But the party DOES follow up on another hook they found on the battlefield - the letter that leads into B7 Rahasia!
And that's where they are now. All 3rd - 5th(the 1/2elf sorc) lv, 1/2way through Rahasia, with 1 of their party possessed by the third witch....
And another two new players have joined bringing the table to 8!
