[DnD3ish HB] Shared Story Style DnD

[TwoCrows]

Hey All,

Tonight's weekly gaming session was a blast, what our group calls a "real keeper!" We older Players have all commented that we feel like we did "back in the good ol' days when Ged & Hendle were queer" (a nearly 30 year old inside joke referencing an in-game incident that no one who played it has ever forgotten...try that with a monopoly game). The newer Players have all made similar comments sans the old-timer's hack, even though they've all had its meaning explained to them in gory detail more than once.

I'll try to keep the lead up & background to a minimum...and get to why I think we're enjoying ourselves so much lately.

The Group – There are 6 of us. I'm the DM, and have enjoyed the joys & sorrows of wielding the Force behind that Black Curtain 90% of the time since back in the late 70s when it began with the Blue Box, 6 Styrofoam cups full of paper Chits, 2 pitchers of Kool-Aide, and a paper grocery bag full to the top with stove popped popcorn. Damn, I can still smell the freshly cut grass from the chores my dad made us all do before we were allowed to play into the wee hours of the night down in that little shed behind the house...but I wax nostalgic.

The group is composed of a few old timers...Tony (mid 40s/25+ yrs in the group), Ron (early 40s/20+ yrs), and me (mid 40s/25+ yrs); and others who have varying lengths of veterancy in the group...Scott (late 30s/15+ yrs), Matt (mid 30s/10+ yrs), and another Brad (early 30s/5+ yrs).

The Campaign Setting – The campaign setting includes a story arc that has lasted since the beginning, with multiple plotlines springing from the lives of past PCs. We've even played multiple generations of PCs. We've also played Divine Accession before it was in any "canonical" printed material. Yes, some of the gods in the setting are old PCs.

This time around (new set of characters) we consensually agreed to homebrew the rules (3Eish), even more than they are presently, to purposefully prolong the "Weeny" through "Pretty Damned Good" phases, and do away entirely with the "Kill or Be Killed, Initiative Decides Your Fate" Epic LvL phase (details forthcoming to anyone who's interested). We have a pretty good Social Contract that includes rewriting game rules together, and post-game deconstructions to keep our fun meters as close to pegged as possible. (We've intentionally Drifted/HB'd almost any game we've ever played, including board games like Risk, and card games like Euchre.)

The other important facts pertinent to the actual gaming session are that we play more theatrically, and improvisationally than most, and we use loads of props. So, as I describe the scenes keep in your mind that everyone is sitting around a table with hand made wooden weapons, the actual book mentioned in the scene, and yelling "shring" as they actually motion to draw steel, rather than saying "my character draws his sword."

So, you can't get any Weenier than 10 to 14 year old kids, who are NPC Classed (Commoners), and Hit Diced accordingly (details on how we handle the "DM largess" factor available to anyone who's interested).

The Scene – The office of a Sage to whom Elsmere serves as an apprentice limner; the party is there to determine what to do with a book they received from the dying Master Nagbane Wric yesterday; roguish types, identified as members of the Black Hand Society have been attempting to intimidate them, evidently to discover if they have the book, and from that they surmise it must be important; Kicker – they've been in deep shit with their parents over their newly found "adventuring careers," and actually post whipped in town by authorities for being caught with illegal substances collected in the process (devil's weed); considering the troubles they've been in Elsmere told them all before they went in, that the Mages Guild (actually "The Sodality of Dweomercrafters, Sages, and Arcaners," but nobody likes saying that mouthful, least of all the people who work there) is no place to get caught fooling around, so the whole scene is fraught with his tension that they'll do something as screwed up as they've done elsewhere and cost him, and his NPC father their jobs...or worse

DM (Me) – The guard delivers you to the office where your boss works.

Elsmere (Brad) – [to party] I'm telling you guys, don't screw around in here, or we're all end up whipped again, dead ...or worse!

Elsmere (Brad) – Hello Zenophus...

Zenophus (NPC/Me) – Oh, who's this? Did you bring your friends to see where you work?

Note – Brad rolled the "Loved by everyone in your Hometown" Idiosyncrasy for Elsmere during character generation, which is one of many PC backstory tools we've written to add texture to the setting (Yes, for those who are familiar it was inspired by a similar chart found in the Arduin Grimoire Trilogy).

Elsmere (Brad) – Uhm no...actually I think we have a sort of problem...and I thought maybe you could help us.

Zenophus (NPC) – Why whatever's wrong Elsmere? You boys come on in, and we'll see what I can do.

Brialeen (Me) – I'm a girl.

Theanor (Scott) – Yeah, but you ain't got no titties, so how could he tell the difference?

Elsemere (Brad) – [under his breath to Theanor] Dammit! I told you not to screw around...

DM (Me) – [to Brad/Elsmere] The two scribes you work with smile, and say hello.

Elsemere (Brad) – High guys. [to Zenophus] Can we talk alone?

Zenophus (NPC) – [to scribe] Would you escort these fine boys out into the hall so I can talk to Elsmere privately?

Brialeen (Me) – I'm a girl.

Dirk (Ron) – Noooo...yer a turd eater!

Note – Kid Characters have the Taunt Feat (more homebrew), and Brialeen has failed a number of times to Save against this particular taunt, so she's at mild penalty (higher DC) to resist it. DC 15...she rolls a 9, and fails.

Brialeen (Me) – [I begin theatrically sobbing as a result of the failed taunt save]

Group – [laughter]

Elsemere (Brad) – [to party] Dammit! No fooling around!

Elsemere (Brad) – [to Zenophus] No, I mean can we kids talk to you alone.

Zenophus (NPC) – [to scribes] Leave us.

DM (Me) – The scribes leave the room

As the party begins talking to Zenophus about the book, and a dialog ensues. Matt motions that he's drawing his sword slowly, and begins playing with it.

Zenophus (NPC) – [raising an eyebrow] Why that's a fine longsword you have there. Are you going to hit me with it?

Leo (Matt) – No.

Matt begins fumbling around with something on the table, a couple of Players look, but the rest continue talking. Brad sees what Matt is doing, therefore in our gaming style, and this instance Elsmere also sees what Leo is doing. He's picked up another of the props that litter our gaming room, a wand, and hides it behind the blade of his prop longsword. Indicating that he's attempting to actually steal a wand from the Sage in-character.

I roll a Spot for the Sage, who fails...and Leo actually steals a wand from the Sage.

Meanwhile Brad/Elsmere is making all sorts of in-character gestures to get Matt/Leo to stop screwing around. The Sage never did make a Spot, and Leo actually stole a wand from his office...much to the consternation of Elsmere, who created a great party interaction scene on the trip home from the visit. Essentially the Players dialoged for another 30 minutes without any DM interaction...I played my PC throughout that whole interaction.

This has already run too long...and I trimmed it twice, but suffice it to say that we had a blast NOT killing hordes of monsters, NOT being walking tanks that wade in where angels fear to tread, NOT collecting swag from monsters that merely represent token game pieces, and above all sharing the story together, improvisationally, and theatrically.

We all belly laughed through the whole post-game deconstruction, commenting on each other's roleplaying, rather than how messed up rules were ruining our fun.

Brad