Worldwide D&D Game Day - Sep 19 2009

[MerricB]

Well, our Game Day went well - small, but well.

I also got to play 4e for the first time.

Most of the players of my regular group turned up around midday, and along with Dillon (a regular player with Mick, the other DM present) we happily created an adventure. When I say, "we", mostly it was they. Dillon came up with this plotline around a poisoned stream after some brainstorming, and we all agreed it was a great idea and then wrote the adventure around it.

Meanwhile, Mick and Liam were creating the adventure that eventually Mick ran my group through. So, Mick DMed, and I played the halfling barbarian. We had a great time - and I was extremely effective playing the halfling, who rolled a number of really good criticals.

By now, Martin (another member of my group) and the rest of Mick's group had turned up. So, I ran them and Mick through the adventure we'd created earlier. So, both Mick and I DMed, and we both played as well!

None of the PCs died, although there were a few moments of anxiety, and good teamwork carried the day for both teams.

The moment of the session came for me in the final encounter I ran: The Duergar Cleric, reduced to 3 hit points and with all his allies destroyed, was eventually killed by the fighter shooting his crossbow (d8 damage). It was just too wonderful for words to do it justice.

Cheers!

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I found that, given the maps the PCs were working with, that there was a tonne of pushing and sliding of monsters, especially into pits. One duergar guard made her saves five or six rounds in a row to avoid going down one pit! And this was from players who had, with one exception, never played 4E before!

 

[MerricB]

I found that, given the maps the PCs were working with, that there was a tonne of pushing and sliding of monsters, especially into pits. One duergar guard made her saves five or six rounds in a row to avoid going down one pit! And this was from players who had, with one exception, never played 4E before!

Very true.

Another very funny moment: the minotaurs were trying to push the PCs into pits. Problem was, it was the minotaurs that always ended up there! One minotaur was pushed in three times. Finally he got a PC in the pit, who then used his really effective range attack on the minotaur. Urgh. The minotaur charged into the pit, missed the PC, and hit his head on the floor and fell dead.

Sometimes, minotaurs shouldn't leave mazes.

Cheers!

 

[Blastin]

I went to our game day at the Local Barnes and Nobles. We ended up with two tables, one of which ended up with me running three ten year old girls and the mom of one of the girls, and one of my buddies. The mom and girls were all complete newbies. One of them had read some of the quickstart rules on WOTC's website, and convinced two friends and her mom to come and play. Apparently the mom had contacted the guy setting up the event before hand to see what it was all about.
I was quite impressed with how fast they picked up the rules/ideas of the game. And never underestimate the ruthlessness of ten year old girls! They had a lot of fun making up the adventure for the other table but were upset when no one died! They guy running the event wanted me to allow the girls to have the duergar surrender, to show that killing them wasn't the only option. So the last dark dwarf standing surrendered. When I asked them what they wanted to do with him one of the girls said "I chop off his head!" without missing a beat. The other girl saw the look on the managers face and said, "We play Halo. We don't take prisioners." They changed their minds and did question him though
Then, in the second encounter the girl playing the swordmage suggested splitting the party to attack both sides of the room. The girl playing the artificer replied, "I'm the only healer and if we slpit up I won't be able to help everyone." She came up with "never split the party" all on her own.
They left the store with the starter box set, their character mini's and the manager gave them the extra set of monsters as well. So, three or four new gamers. Not a bad day.

 

[Daern]

I went to our game day at the Local Barnes and Nobles. We ended up with two tables, one of which ended up with me running three ten year old girls and the mom of one of the girls, and one of my buddies. The mom and girls were all complete newbies. One of them had read some of the quickstart rules on WOTC's website, and convinced two friends and her mom to come and play. ...So, three or four new gamers. Not a bad day.

That's rad. Great story.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I went to our game day at the Local Barnes and Nobles. We ended up with two tables, one of which ended up with me running three ten year old girls and the mom of one of the girls, and one of my buddies. The mom and girls were all complete newbies. One of them had read some of the quickstart rules on WOTC's website, and convinced two friends and her mom to come and play. Apparently the mom had contacted the guy setting up the event before hand to see what it was all about.
I was quite impressed with how fast they picked up the rules/ideas of the game. And never underestimate the ruthlessness of ten year old girls! They had a lot of fun making up the adventure for the other table but were upset when no one died! They guy running the event wanted me to allow the girls to have the duergar surrender, to show that killing them wasn't the only option. So the last dark dwarf standing surrendered. When I asked them what they wanted to do with him one of the girls said "I chop off his head!" without missing a beat. The other girl saw the look on the managers face and said, "We play Halo. We don't take prisioners." They changed their minds and did question him though
Then, in the second encounter the girl playing the swordmage suggested splitting the party to attack both sides of the room. The girl playing the artificer replied, "I'm the only healer and if we slpit up I won't be able to help everyone." She came up with "never split the party" all on her own.
They left the store with the starter box set, their character mini's and the manager gave them the extra set of monsters as well. So, three or four new gamers. Not a bad day.

That is simply fantastic! Glad they had such a great time and hopefully they will continue playing!

 

[Blastin]

I hope so too. I'm talking to the manager about maybe doing a Living Forgotten Realms event there once a month. Would be cool if the girls and mom came back for that.