In the basement again, DnD 3rd session

[RobMuadib]

Hi all

Well, managed to play another session of DnD 3rd this time with a few players. I ended up DMing, as the one guy we played with last week, ended up deploying sooner than we thought (as in the next sunday, sigh.) Unfortunately we are dealing with a lot of revolving player issues at the moment. Ken and I are the only guaranteed players in the group. Turns out the local air-base has decided to resurface their runways this summer, thus the majority of it's personal are being deployed elsewhere for 4 months or so, including several of our potential players.

Going to try to round up at least 1 more dedicated player, but things don't look good. Speaking of not looking good, I was only half-prepared and still new to the rules. So the game necessarily dragged. However, even still the players seemed to have a good time.

I was running in Calemboria, and the players seemed to find several of my world specific bits, like my vicious little cannibal goblins, interesting and engaging.  Though I dragged a bit in resolution, I did better in role-play this time, establishing some interesting character in Rothin, leader of the local garison, who ended up being a kind of southern redneck sheriff drunk. And the character of Volhan, supposed adviser and steward to Sir Ahrikor, who was away fighting in the north. To qoute Shakespear, "One can smile and smile and still be a villian.":)

Planning on actually preparing several things for next time and things should get interesting, first they have to finish exploring the ruined city they found, figure out to beat the nasty Sordren demon-ghost thing, beat up some stuff, and hopefully find a few of his remaining spell-books.

Then when they emerge victorious I will have them waylaid by some Orkhgasalii (Mean ass Orcs allied with the masters of the Obsidian Spire.) Allowing them to have their spell books stolen and introduce them to the larger backstory of the world.

I need to encourage and work with Cliff some more, as he has developed an amazing ability to find his character in bad luck situations and all, and I found him twiddling his die several times, though the fact that we played till 2am or so might have helped.


Speaking of encouragment and working with, I can say that Ken definitely has a gamist/tokenal approach to game, which he indicated to me by several comments. He also made several suggestions during the game, indicating things he would find interesting, or other good ideas.

This should help me out in planning out the rest of the adventure, I will bust some more objective challenges for him and cut down on my narrativist fiat during the action scenes. Designing the rest of the ruined city should give me opportunity to engage and interest him, I will also throw more ropes to cliff and see what he responds to again.

Oh yeah, I am being drawn to the dark side, finding myself liking D20/DnD 3rd rather much (or maybe it was the couple of beers.:)). I have been fairly impressed with several of the 3rd ed products, and alot of the D20 OGL stuff too, definitely more interesting stuff being shoveled out these days.

Rob

(P.S. I didn't prepare all of my adventure as I found myself up all night working on my world stuff for some reason, or 120,000 of them, or something:)

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rob,

This was the phrase that caught my eye:

"Then when they emerge victorious ..."

H'mmm. Have you considered the possibility of defeat in that particular series of events? To do so, you'd have to include something at stake beyond merely running out of hit points, but I think you have the NPCs to justify such stakes, based on your description.

Best,
Ron

[Balbinus]

Rob,

Ain't nothin' wrong with 3e if it works for you, I personally think it is a well crafted gaming engine.

Ken sounds like a useful player, anyone who puts in suggestions is showing (a) that they give a damn about your game and (b) that they are happy to help develop it rather than just sit and wait to be entertained.

Developing more NPCs might not be a bad bet, it sounds like you have a knack for them and it would be playing to your strengths.  Plus, they begin to generate adventures on their own as the PCs interact with the NPC motivations and plots.

One thing which slightly concerned me, are you planning out what will happen in the game?  I may well have misread, but if you are I'd be careful as either (a) the players will ignore what you intend leaving you with a ton of wasted work or (b) the players will feel it doesn't matter what they do because you've already decided everything.

I notice you mention you have narrativist leanings, if your players don't share them it's really important to make sure your desire for cool story doesn't veer over into telling a story.  Joint creation is what it's about.

With respect to DnD and your gamist player, I'd drop narrativist tricks in combat.  That is where a gamist DnD player is getting a lot of his fun I figure, work the narrativisty stuff into other types of conflict scenarios where 3e has less concrete rules already in place - social situations for example.

Hope some of this helps, like your npc races by the way.

[RobMuadib]

Hi Rob,

This was the phrase that caught my eye:

"Then when they emerge victorious ..."

H'mmm. Have you considered the possibility of defeat in that particular series of events? To do so, you'd have to include something at stake beyond merely running out of hit points, but I think you have the NPCs to justify such stakes, based on your description.

Best,
Ron

Ron, good point about that. I think something along the lines of their success/failure affecting Volhan's status might be good. Something like that described below.

Defeat is an option, though basically Volhan is an agent of the Spire and has alerted the Spire that they are close to finding someting of import in the ruins. I came up with some retro-backstory that Volhan manipulated the former commander of the garrison to investigate the ruins, on the pretense of it being related to the goblin raids, or something. He didn't come back.

They will have dispatched a small group of Orkhgasalii to watch over the ruins and waylay the adventurers should the find anything of import. As Volhan has assured them they will.

So the most likely result of them failing is Volhan being put into a dangerous position with his employers. Currently his chief usefulness is providing them with an easy means to infiltrate into Katilorn, and otherwise providing useful information.  He is definitely a low-level lackey in my developing estimation of him.

Thanks for pointing out the need for plans within plans with regards to my planning.:)

Rob

[RobMuadib]

Rob,



One thing which slightly concerned me, are you planning out what will happen in the game?  I may well have misread, but if you are I'd be careful as either (a) the players will ignore what you intend leaving you with a ton of wasted work or (b) the players will feel it doesn't matter what they do because you've already decided everything.

I notice you mention you have narrativist leanings, if your players don't share them it's really important to make sure your desire for cool story doesn't veer over into telling a story.  Joint creation is what it's about.

That is probably one of my greatest strengths, and my greatest failings as a GM. I tend to imagine interesting situations and characters, usually tending towards the epic, which in and of itself leads to engaging game situations. But, I tend to fixate on getting to the money shots of various bits of my emerging story, leaving the players wondering when things turned into Story hour :)

With respect to DnD and your gamist player, I'd drop narrativist tricks in combat.  That is where a gamist DnD player is getting a lot of his fun I figure, work the narrativisty stuff into other types of conflict scenarios where 3e has less concrete rules already in place - social situations for example.

Hope some of this helps, like your npc races by the way.

Thanks for the advice Balbinus, I need to resist my urge to suspend the bulk of the rules and let the adventure play out by the players actions.

Speaking of which, Need to bust out CC2 and design the ruined city deal, adding traps, and hazards and challenges and monsters enough to engage the players in plenty of old school dungeoneering. Instead of trying to downlplay that element and focus solely on emerging plot and character interaction. Put short, let them raid the tombs, check for traps, kick in the doors, and argue over strategy, damnit!:)

Wow, designing a dungeon, it doesn't get any more old school than that:)


Rob