[D&D] Actual Play pt. 2: Running off with the game

[Jay Turner]

We played the second game in our D&D campaign, which is featured in this thread.

I had this whole adventure planned in which the PCs would travel from the slavers' dungeon where they were imprisoned toward the town of Oakvale and, eventually, the city of Geniir. They had a lead that said they were meant to be sold directly to a noble lord there, and so that's where they were headed. Along the way, they'd find adventure.

And I didn't use a word of it, not in 6 hours of gaming that night. In that time, I got to the end of the first sentence in my plans.

Basically, the heroes had tied up the unconscious Kerik, the leader of the slavers. They decided they would wait for him to awake and then question him. When they questioned him, the magic happened.

They asked him how far they were from the nearest town: "A couple days' cart-travel," he said. Then they asked, "Do you have a cart here?" He said, "No, my men took the cart to Geniir." They asked when his men would be back. I decided to have him say, "In a couple of days."

So the group decided to wait until the cart returned, knowing that it would be returning from a slave auction with money and supplies. I had planned to have them penniless and hungry on the way to Oakvale. It seemed my tactical mistake (in telling them a cart would be coming soon) would make the situation very much the opposite.

That evening the two thieves went back into the dungeon to look for secret areas and more forgotten treasure. I had them roll Search, and one of them succeeded. Nub the halfling found a chest hidden under some things in the boss' trophy room. It was trapped, but he didn't realize it. Sure, they eventually found a masterwork greataxe and 20 gold in the chest, but poor Nub took 4 points of Dexterity damage from the poison needle trap. He and the other thief, a half-elf named Aja, decided to quietly split the gold themselves, but they gave the axe to Dirk, their paladin.

Meanwhile, Dirk and Thathaeger (half-elf ranger) had gone out to hunt for food and had come across some kobold tracks (I rolled a random encounter; so sue me ;)). The kobolds had heard them coming and buried themselves in the snow, ready for ambush. The heroes managed to get away without being noticed, but they vowed to come back later to find those kobolds.

That night, Dirk, Thathaeger, and Aja decided to go out and find those kobolds (and some food), and Nub and Eryn (elf sorcerer) would stay behind and keep watch on Kerik (whom they had tossed into a prison cell below, while the half-orc prison guard was still tied up in the other cell. Nub hid nearby. Eventually, Eryn decided to come in and talk to Kerik and give him some food and water. He entered the cell, gave him some food, and played right into my hands.

While being questioned, Kerik mentioned that if they were going to wait here for the cart, they'd need some food, because there wasn't much in the dungeon. Eryn replied, "Oh, the others went out to find food, don't worry." Knowing now that he was alone with this elf magic-user and a halfling, Kerik (who had succeeded in an Escape Artist to get out of his bonds) grabbed the elf and threatened the halfling to let him go. Of course, little Nub ran up and stabbed Kerik twice in the leg, wounding him so badly that no one's sure whether it was that or Eryn's angry, pyromaniacal Burning Hands that killed him.

Outside, the three hunters found the kobolds, killed them (in a battle that saw the paladin taking the heat, since he was a) wearing big heavy shining armor and b) holding a lightsource, since he's human and therefore nightblind. They also took the time to find food and return.

Over the next couple of days, they set up traps for the coming cart of slavers and waited. Another patrol of kobolds decided to come home soon after, and they quickly were disposed of.

They finally got to the night the slavers were supposed to return, and they posted Eryn and Aja to the roof to watch. After a long wait, Eryn spotted a single rider approaching on horseback. The rider, apparently noticing something amiss, hopped off the horse and attempted to sneak toward the cabin. The heroes spotted her, and she took a shot at Eyrn as she began to backpeddle toward her horse. Eryn, who has jumped down from the roof to his post behind a mound of snow, came face to face with mortality as a large arrow thunked into the bank of snow and come within inches of popping his gut. A few shots from crossbows and the rider was killed.

Thathaeger got dressed up in the rider's clothing, and the heroes decided to try the old "captive wookiee" trick to get close to the carriage. They tied Dirk to the back of the horse while Eryn, Aja, and Nub walked stealthily nearby. They followed the road in the direction the rider came from and eventually came upon the cart.

One of the slavers in the cart (a hobgoblin blessed with darkvision) spotted Eryn and took a shot. The resulting battle ended up with the unarmed cart driver dead and the horses driving the cart going insane, sparking off a slapstick-filled chase as the heroes all try to get the horses calmed down at the same time. Once they did, they took the cart back to the cabin and decided to rest there for the night before packing up and heading out.

We called the game at that point, because it was midnight and my horrendous cold was getting the better of me. That's when I pointed out to the group that none of what happened that night was planned in any way, except for their questioning of Kerik. They were flabbergasted.

It felt really, really good. I've improvised games before (used to do an essentially diceless, satirical, improvisiational game of Champions, which was an inspiration for Bullpen), but they didn't ever come across as well as this one. I chalk the success up to Jamis Buck's NPC generator, which created the slavers on the cart, as well as Kerik, the NPC that started it all that night.

Meanwhile, the PCs are all level 2 now, so I'll have to ramp up the adventure I made before. Of course, I can't assume they'll actually go for my adventure at this point. ;)

[PL3]

d&d rocks although i have never played it

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Jay,

Walt Freitag has some outstanding comments on "mission selection" and how it relates to a widespread species of DMing and D&D, in Non-gamers say the darndest things. The comments don't address what you're doing with this game, but rather what you're steadfastly avoiding doing, so I thought you might be interested.

Best,
Ron