Dungeons & Dragons: "Check Please"
Posted: Monday March 25th, 2013
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While our primary DM is galavanting across the globe on his honeymoon, a pal -who is new to DMing- has stepped in to entertain us. Last night was our second session under his watch. He made some rookie mistakes. But he's starting his own campaign with new, uninitiated players. So, this was good practice for him. Seamus and I are experienced DMs. Taks has been playing D&D for a long time as well. So he got a lot of useful feedback.
Anywho, on to the story...
There were 4 of us, down from the usual six. Women were disappearing from a small village just outside of our usual stomping grounds. We were tasked with figuring out what was going on. We found our way to a cave in the woods in front of which two monsters were eating a female child. After dispatching the monster we headed in and layed waste to everything that presented itself in front of us. Even without our full group we made our way easily through the first handful of rooms. We found runes etched into some of the cavern walls. A 'Religion Check' revealed them to be in praise of Orcus. We also found a slew of mind wiped women from the village. We tried several things to snap them out of their stupor but nothing worked. We decided to put them back into the cages we found them in. You know, to keep them safe from themselves until we returned to lead them home.
In the final room we found a cluster of Orcus worshippers. Very early on Seamus and I realized the room was way overpowered. We played knowing full well we were about to encounter a TPK. (total party kill) But, this is the way for new DM's to learn. The Paladin dropped, followed by the cleric. Thunk did his best but was only able to bring down a couple of monsters before succumbing to the tide of crescent blades, chained battleaxes, dazes and immobilizes. It wasn't pretty. In my 20+ years of D&D playing it's the only time I've been on either side of a TPK. I think that makes me the exception though, not the rule.
Despite our deaths we had fun. And like I said, this is the way new DM's learn.
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While we're on the subject of D&D, Dwarven Forge -makers of the finest dungeon building sets I know of- are looking to Kickstart the process to provide their pieces at cheaper prices so they're more accessible to the tabletop RPG playing masses. As of the time of this writing the project has already double funded with 36 days to go. I would imagine this one will end up being a runaway success like the Reaper Bones project was.
Here's the link:
Dwarven Forge's Game Tiles: Revolutionary Miniature Terrain
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