World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[Nyarlathotep]

The DM could play a walking band-aid.
He takes no offensive action, and heals all the time.
I don't like that idea, but it's something I've seen before.

Or, as DM, you could try the healer class from the Minatures Handbook. They seem very weak offensively but excel at healing. I'm DMing a group that doesn't have a cleric and an NPC healer is working out not too badly. (I don't like having to run a band-aid, but my DMing style is definately not conducive to healer-light parties and it would detract from the players fun to have to run a cleric.)

Another option is the overpowered gestalt characters from unearthed arcana.

I'm Dming another group through the WLD right now (finally on the threshold of exploring region B) and I've been thinking that I should have tried the gestalt characters from the start. This group does have a cleric, but I can see how it's not fun to be playing him especially at lower levels because all he has time to do is heal his allies. I imagine that at higher levels it will be even worse. It might work well for some groups though.

The one rule I'm trying from Unearthed Arcana that seems to work pretty well is the Vitality/wound points system. For groups without a cleric, this is especially beneficial as vitality points are recovered (relatively) quickly. The downside seems to be that fights last an extra 3 - 6 rounds per combat depending on the enemy mix.

And finally, screw'em.
Let them accept what they've done to themselves.

Heh, I would normally agree to this, but I find it just leads to this:

Player: Ooohhh! I've taken 8 points of damage, let's rest and get this healed up before we go any further.

DM: Are you sure, you just struck camp not 40 minutes ago?

Players: Yep, the stack of bodies from yesterday's wandering monsters scattered around the door ought to disuade any more attackers. Have 2 days passed yet?

Once you factor spell use in there it's even worse YMMV

 

[Qwillion]

beldar1215

with only 3 players you might consider letting them play gesalt characters.

If not then I recomend a mute cleric npc.

 

[der_kluge]

This is kind of an off the wall question, but I wanted to get some thoughts on this. We just started playing WLD, and my DM has decided that he wants to use Castles and Crusades rules for this bad boy.

Now, I suppose that, theoretically, it should work, and indeed, we haven't had too many difficulties, other than we get confused when trying to figure out how to roll initiative from one game to the next. But I have noticed that the save DCs for things like fireball are impossible. For example, 4 out of 6 of us died when two of the party members decided to attack an orc mage early on in area A. The save DCs for those of us who did not have Dex as a primary stat (a C&C concept) was something like 23. We were 1st level. Needless to say, only the toughest fighter walked away from that one, and drug the only still breathing person back to safety.

Then last night, we got toasted by another fireball from a trapped door. The save DC for this one was 24, and the GM "rolled" 12 points of damage. I put quotes around that, because as a 6 die fireball, he'd had to have rolled 6 2s in order to generate 12 points of damage. Again, we're 1st level.

Now, in the d20 world, the save DC for that fireball would have been around 15, and 1 out of 4 of us would have saved. As it was, only a single rogue made the save.

So, my question is, are we screwed?

 

[pheaver]

I use the Reserve Points variant from UA. My group has a cleric, but I've found that using that means the cleric generally uses his healing spells in combat to keep people up, rather than using them after combat to fill up wounded people. First of all, it means lower level parties can explore more in a day, which I like. However, they aren't any more capable of dealing with threats with Reserve Points, unlike with some of the other options. Also, it helps the cleric player, because he feels a little more useful: his spells are always being cast on unconscious / almost down players in combat, or using spells for buffing the party, rather than being a walking CLW wand.

My group's almost done with Section A (they retreated after Mr. Owlbear) and they've explored little parts of B (killing a bunch of bugbears after diplomacy failed) and E (met the garrison). They love it! Using EL as CR, they're mostly 4th level.

Paul

 

[just__al]

We had our first session saturday, we started creating characters at noon and we stopped playing at 11:30 with only about a 45 minute break to order & retrieve sushi takeout.

Group consists of
Human Cleric of Boccob with the knowlege and magic domains
Hafling rogue
Human Warmage
Human fighter (spiked chain monkey)

Next session they will also have a TWF style ranger.

I started the group at second level but with 0xp and 250gp of equipment. They misunderstood an offhanded comment I made about gear and decided to track encumberance down to the single dagger. I was only planning on using the "don't go crazy" rule, but I think I kinda like it, it really makes sense for this setting so I'm keeping it.

They actually started out having been hired to investigate a goblin lair but they got summoned by a rogue who botched his UMD check trying to use a scroll of summon monster because he was fighting fiendish gnolls and all his compatriots had already subcummed to the poison from the gnolls weapons. The secondary poison killed him before the battle ended and the players felt themselves being "put back" but then they hit a metaphysical wall and were stuck there. It helped establish that if they summon anything it's staying, I even told them right after they didn't get put back, that they weren't compelled to fight the gnolls (they did anyway since the gnolls were still hostile) which should clue them in on what happens when their summoning spells finally end.

They didn't fight the 3 depressed orcs, they eventually came back and found them dead. They had a few battles with darkmantles, set off a few traps, and gained the ogre's respect. They also encountered one of the lantern archons that gave them a map, which greatly sped up play since my wife needed to exactly map every square they crossed.

They took the back scratcher from oghnars room, decided that the only thing they hate more than fiendish stirges is fiendish rat swarms and then finally had a big showdown with the kobolds.

The party rogue decided to check out the room the kobolds were all held up in. The kobold wizard cast a flaming sphere in the doorway and was intending to talk, but the rogue thinking he set off a trap decided to jump over the sphere and INTO the room.

Battle was on! The krenshar really helped the kobolds much more than I thought it would, but that had to do with the fact that everybody wound up scared during the fight at differing times. By the time the battle was clearly over, one kobold tried to surrender and the Krenshar was actually heeling next to him and only two people in the party spoke Draconic and the warmage decided to cast a hail of stone on the krenshar before the rest of the party could accept the kobolds surrender (he was very upset he ran away). So, we ended with the party having a kobold guide and sleeping in the room with the fort.

They set off a few traps over the day and actually managed to disable one or two. I'll have to figure XP before the next session but I'm betting they didn't level.

 

[just__al]

Is there any chance of seeing more of the "players" maps? I'd really like to have them for my players. The lantern archons will be giving them to the group from time to time.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Another session in the can.
And a sucessful one, if I may say.

When last we left our intrepid heroes, they had finished about a quarter of Region A, and were about to fight the fiendish rat swarm. (Starting off with an encounter worked remarkably well, since it allowed the group to build their suspense/ whet their appetite prior to actually beginning play!!) Prior to this session, I warned everyone that they may want to roll up back-up characters in case of a TPK.

The combat was very tense on both sides: I have opted to run the Dungeon "as written" for the most part, and rolled the dice in the open, in front of everybody: "Let the dice fall where they may", essentially. The party made a couple of tactical errors, but (primarily due to my low ratio of hits!!) we avoided a TPK, even though the few hits the swarm did make really hurt. The fight ended with the swarm disposed of, five of the six party members bleeding out, and Beatrice (the Halfling's war-dog) pulling Greyhunt the (unconscious) Halfling to safety. Forutnately, the cleric was the last man standing, and managed to save most of the party.

That was also an interesting experience, what with the cleric being an NPC. During this fight, I opted not to keep track of the party's HP, so while the party was bleeding out, I (as DM) did not know how badly injured everyone was. It worked out that the Mordigan the Dwarf was saved at -9 HP, Jackie the Monk was saved at -3, and Greyhunt was saved at -6, while the thief was sent to the Great Beyond: our first character kill in WLD. (RIP, Sir Roderick of Miggsville.)

Lessons learned?
A) Against swarms and other creatures that take half-damage from slashing and piercing weapons, the mace-wielding cleric and Monk are your MVP all-stars.
B) "Smite Good" is a really, really powerful ability.
C) The party will really, really miss the thief.
D) Ability damage also really, really hurts.

So, we currently have:
Mordigan the Dwarf (Level 1 Cleric, Level 1 Rogue)
Jacqueline Chan (Level 2 Monk)-- Yeah, I have some practical jokers in the group.
Greyhunt Baskerville (Level 2 Warrior/ Dog-Rider) -- See above.
Beltan (Level 2 NPC Cleric of Kord)
Thomas McGregor, Hill Dwarf (though he seems more like a Gully Dwarf) (Level 2 Fighter)

Interestingly, they have no true thief (since Roderick died), and, somewhat surprisingly, IMO, no arcane caster.

 

[Jim Hague]

They don't like you.

They had their second battle with Madness last night.

The first battle, last week, they were ready for and he still gave them a run for their money.

The second battle last night he was able to get the drop on them and they were able to win, but almost lost 1/2 the party in the process. After that fight the sorcerer dropped 2 fireballs on him and followed it up with 2 scorching ray spells (for 4 rays).

Later, after they returned to rest in region E, they came back to check to see if he was still dead. Nope - so they ran for it.

On the way back, the only true fighter in the group contracted the healing curse that gives a +2 to int & wis, but -6 to charisma. He's a dwarf barbarian with a charisma that is normally. So that left him an inredibly smart vegetable.

And that is just a brief glimpse of the last 2 sessions.

So accordingly, their opinion of you is not that high.

I'm not sure whether I should be hurt or amused. I didn't design I to be a meat grinder, but taking the direct route against Anguish and Madness can certainly lead to that. Of course, as I've mentioned before, I took Lovecraft and Howard as inspiration, with a nice splash of Cronenberg for flavor. Hey, Conan was never afraid to run away from a threat he couldn't tackle directly...

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Is there any chance of seeing more of the "players" maps? I'd really like to have them for my players. The lantern archons will be giving them to the group from time to time.

I don't think so.
The guy who worked on the maps got addicted to an MMORPG and stopped at map F.

Dern shame too.

I also kind of wish that AEG made all the maps as jpgs rather than just some. Editing PDF's requires much more work.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I'm not sure whether I should be hurt or amused. I didn't design I to be a meat grinder, but taking the direct route against Anguish and Madness can certainly lead to that. Of course, as I've mentioned before, I took Lovecraft and Howard as inspiration, with a nice splash of Cronenberg for flavor. Hey, Conan was never afraid to run away from a threat he couldn't tackle directly...

Be amused. The whole region has them on their toes. The lair of Madness with its moving rooms got to more than one player. And the swarm of the gricks in room I17 was too reminiscent of the movie Aliens just prior to the marines being swarmed through the roof. My games usually run more like 1990's Japanese-RPG kinds of games, not the dark and evil kind as shown in the WLD.

(Don't mention any of this to my players.)

Now that they've defeated Anguish and Madness, the fallout of the region should be interesting. Lareth and the drow are going to want Eight Strikes Fang back. Arioch and his driders are going to want revenge, if they determine exactly what happened. And with their level of magic, I think they will.

Now they are also going to have to deal with the inevitables back in region E. The inevitable leader Dubar will have finally lost his last bit of sanity and will be recruiting the barghests as new entrants into The Redeemed and will be attempting to use some twisted logic to replace Kelara.

Hopefully my players will be able to fix things the intelligent and easy way and fix it all. But they have the amazing ability to do the opposite of what I expect.

But we shall see.