What are the cliched "first session ever" moments?

[Wik]

So, the girlfriend decided - kind of on a whim - that she wanted to try out D&D. She's never played an RPG before, and has only been in the room once when we were playing. She thinks the rules are super confusing, but she's beginning to believe me when I tell her she doesn't need to know them.

Anyways, she wants to join our game and give a session a shot. And I think my group is more than happy to oblige. I don't want to do a new campaing (ie, where everyone is 1st level) so we're instead giving her a companion character, with no magical items - kept as simple as possible (Blargney is making one up for me - we decided an elven druid would fit the setting, and my girlfriend's general makeup).

That all out of the way, what are those "moments" that a first session should have? What are the cliches? You know - first ten foot pit, first "fight a skeleton in a room slowly filling with water", and so on. What can I throw into a three hour (or so) session to give her an idea of what gaming is?

 

[Relique du Madde]

Creatures that you must indiscriminately kill because they are "evil*".


*Only after a few sessions can you introduce the concept of non-standard alignments and non-evil badguys..

 

[FireLance]

Some cliches that come to mind are:

1. You meet in a tavern.

2. You are given a mission by a mysterious stranger.

3. You have a fight at the entrance to the dungeon.

4. You die get dropped to 0 hit points or below. (I assume you're playing 4E? )

5. You walk carefully down the passageway, checking for traps.

6. You trigger a trap anyway.

7. You die lose a healing surge. (I assume you're playing 4E? )

8. You enter a 10' by 10' 40' by 40' room. (I assume you're playing 4e? ) An orc is guarding a chest.

9. You kill the orc.

10. After a long and exciting battle, because the orc is a solo monster (I assume you're playing 4E? )

11. You check the chest for traps.

12. You trigger a trap anyway.

13. You die lose a healing surge. (Blah, blah, 4E )

14. You find treasure!

15. You search for secret doors.

16. After rolling dice for several minutes of game time succeeding at a skill challenge, you find a secret door. (Blah, blah, 4E )

17. You go through the secret door and encounter the BBEG!

18. You die defeat the BBEG! Victory!

19. You return to the mysterious stranger, report your success and get your reward.

20. You can't wait for your next adventure! (Or so we hope )

 

[Wolf1066]

You charge in head-first against an overwhelmingly vicious monster because, due to your lack of experience and ignorance of what monsters are out there, you have absolutely no idea of how bloody dangerous it is - because it has some name that means you don't take it seriously... [COUGH]dragon turtle[/COUGH]

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Dang it! Somebody got to the mysterious stranger sitting in the tavern before I did! (Sorta the cliche, right there.)

While traveling on the road you encounter a wandering merchant who sells you a map to a dungeon!

When you nearing a town you encounter a dying messenger - Larry the Lich has risen from the dead (again)! And is gathering an army of the undead to attack the town! (Alternately you can substitute orcs! for undead!)

So, you settle in for a quiet night in the inn, when the door is kicked open by a couple of guys with crossbows!

The Auld Grump

 

[cdrcjsn]

Gelatinous Cube and/or Mimics!

 

[Wik]

Firelance, apparently I need to spread XP around...

I think you've got a good point about secret doors + treasure. Both of those are going to be thrown into my dungeon (which the rest of the PCs are already exploring), I think. While one of the characters is definitely a perception monkey, I think I might be able to finangle things to give her a chance to shine. Actually, the fact that she'll be trained in nature will be an asset to the party, already...

And I like the idea of some of the monsters that have been mentioned...

 

[Cor_Malek]

Kobold invasion!

Also, not a classic or cliche, but my a-hole reflex made me post this:

Ridiculously cute monsters Should make for a fun clash of attitudes

Some propositions: warden beast bunny/duckbunny, senmurv, brain mole, were-squirrels and dire/evil squirrels, hehe, peltast. And last but not least - flumph.

More friendly - treant, unicorn, hollyphant.

PS.: I was going to write "wow, I actually had harder time finding silly monsters in 4e", but google suggested that I simply need to look into MM2. Krenshar, really? (not cute though ).


Now that I've got this out of my system: interrupted rest during travel; releasing a soul by doing/finding/destroying X; having townsfolk exaggerate your heroism on first quest, and then no one does it anymore, nor believe it was you; "I'm gonna get you next time!" villain.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Buying equipment from the list, pondering whether it's a good idea to buy wolfsbane, iron spikes or a silver dagger.
Pondering what spell to take.
Experienced players telling you what to do.
A dungeon.
Mapping.
Being scared of the unknown, running away.
Orcs or similar savage humanoids.
A chest.
A magic item.
A secret door.
Casting a sleep spell.
Turning undead.
Being bitten by a spider, failing your save vs poison and dying.

 

[Arivendel]

"Save me Obi-wan Kenobi your my only hope" kinda scenarios/introductions you can't get any more cliche than that... well you can but it requires an obscenely long NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!