The 1e Tournement

[Crothian]

Having recently run my first official convention game (which was OD&D at the North TX RPG Con), I have a few. How did the pacing go? Did the PCs get as far as you expected? Was the group size comparable to what you're used to, or larger/smaller? Any comments on that?

I would love to get to the con but it's a bit far and not well placed in the year for me.


Pacing at my table went well. The module was designed in hoped that the place would be a little too big to go all the way through but we did get through all 29 areas in the 4 hours we had each day with mere minutes to spare. The PCs got farther each day so that worked well. I had 8 people at my table and that was larger then I usually do but I've ran for groups of upwards of a dozen regulars and 16 tops so I did have experience with making sure everyone was involved and doing things. I would prefer smaller groups but that was out of my hands.

With the adventure module, is it specifically a tournament adventure? Does it contain any advice on running or designing tournament sessions? Do you consider it a good example of a tournament design? Did it have specific goals, or a general goal, or what? How was the tournament scored?

It was specifically written for this tournament. It does have advice for running a tournament module and scoring. In retrospect it could be a little better on some things but I'd need to reread it to see if I was confused on some issues or if it was explained badly.

The in game goal was to explore the place as much as possible. Scoring was done by how many rooms get explored, how many character survive, bonus points for certain places, and then subtracting for time spent in the caves.

 

[thedungeondelver]

If you have questions or suggestions by all mean ask or comment away. This was my first 1e Tournament and even though I think it went smashingly good I know there is always room to improve.

Well of course my first question is: will you publish your adventure? Or did you run a classic module?

Next question: do you remember by name any of the participants? Two beloved friends of mine were attending and they raved about the old-school vibe at the 'con. She did TOWER OF GYGAX, he said he got in a game or two.

Finally, thank you so much for doing that, regardless.

 

[Crothian]

Well of course my first question is: will you publish your adventure? Or did you run a classic module?

It is Advanced Adventures #15: Stonesky Delve by XRP written by Joseph Browning. I should have made that more apparent in the opening post and so I just did.

Next question: do you remember by name any of the participants? Two beloved friends of mine were attending and they raved about the old-school vibe at the 'con. She did TOWER OF GYGAX, he said he got in a game or two.

I have no idea. I was at the con for 7 days, ran 4 events, played in 4 others, meet lots of people and had a blast.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I would love to get to the con but it's a bit far and not well placed in the year for me.

Yeah, I know what you mean. There are conventions I'd like to go to (e.g. GaryCon), but they're a little too far to be convenient.

I had 8 people at my table and that was larger then I usually do but I've ran for groups of upwards of a dozen regulars and 16 tops so I did have experience with making sure everyone was involved and doing things. I would prefer smaller groups but that was out of my hands.

I had 9 at my table (which was the max I had listed). It's been a *long* time since I've had that many players at the table, and it took me a few minutes to get comfortable with it, but I settled in. I'm not sure that I have a definite preference for smaller groups. I like a smaller group, but I had fun with the larger group, too. I'd have to run more games with large groups before I came down one way or another on that.

It was specifically written for this tournament. It does have advice for running a tournament module and scoring…The in game goal was to explore the place as much as possible. Scoring was done by how many rooms get explored, how many character survive, bonus points for certain places, and then subtracting for time spent in the caves.

Cool. I'll definitely have to check that one out.

 

[Bullgrit]

What were some major differences in what the different groups did? Like did the winning team do something drastically different (better) than the losing team? This is something that always intrigues me about several tables playing the same adventure -- how the groups differ in their adventuring.

Bullgrit

 

[Crothian]

What were some major differences in what the different groups did? Like did the winning team do something drastically different (better) than the losing team? This is something that always intrigues me about several tables playing the same adventure -- how the groups differ in their adventuring.

Bullgrit

My group was a sledge hammer. They plowed their way through things. They explored everything but they spent a lot of resources to do so so had to rest more often. The faster one did it the better. Also, the more PCs that survived the better and I was a killer DM or as I like to say the other DMs were to nice. I have no idea if they were or not, but I killed way more PCs then the other two table put together.

The winning team used spells and resources well. We really didn't discuss too much after wards but that seemed to be the big difference. The third table did not get through everything so they were slower but much more thorough.

 

[Hussar]

If you have questions or suggestions by all mean ask or comment away. This was my first 1e Tournament and even though I think it went smashingly good I know there is always room to improve.

edit: I don't see it as slogging. Asking questions on how the rules played and what we used in the tournament seems legitimate to me.

Must spread xp around, blah blah blah.

Just wanted to call out a very, very classy answer to someone asking questions that some people seem to find very antagonistic. Well done you sir for being classy.

 

[Crothian]

Just wanted to call out a very, very classy answer to someone asking questions that some people seem to find very antagonistic. Well done you sir for being classy.

Thanks, one strategy I've always tried to keep on these boards is take the essence out of a post and continue the discussion with it while ignoring anything that might be inflammatory. I have no horse in the edition wars; I have near complete collections of every game (except OD&D and Chainmail) and if given the chance I would play any version of D&D.

So, let all who have questions ask them and they shall get answered!

 

[Mythmere1]

From NTRPGCon, 15 players is my absolute, will-not-exceed max, and 9-10 would be the preferred number. I had a 15 player group for one session, and it got rough around the edges. Not in terms of handling the DMing, but in terms of handling it when players started to rub each other the wrong way - which was probably also related to the number of people around the table. Noise level gets high - Rob Kuntz moved his group out to the hotel lobby to escape our din. He was very gracious about it, but I still felt bad. 15 people concentrated in one place just make a LOT of noise. When they killed the toad-dragon, I think we might have done some damage to the hotel's structural integrity with the cheering and yelling and such.

 

[scourger]

When they killed the toad-dragon...

That's my sound bite for tonight's game! Thanks.