SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else. Just say no to metagaming!
Our fifteenth session. How did that happen?
We were on player down this session due to life events.
The “Hamund’s Harvesting Handbook: A Complete Guide to Harvesting and Crafting in D&D 5e” was used a couple of times to harvest from fallen opponents. I thought they worked well from a DM’s point of view. I do need to get some player feedback on them at some point. But they do make a lot of sense both mechanically and thematically. I’ll definitely be purchasing the two remaining pdfs that cover the other two official monster books. I’d love it if they covered the Tome of Beasts series of books also. But sadly they don’t. Hopefully my work-in-progress will help on that front.
Most of the session was a combat encounter between an orc, four thugs, and two gnomes.
I don’t like fudging dice rolls. So it is very very annoying that I roll high on initiative for the monsters, but mainly low on combat rolls.
In the combat I did split the party using a portcullis that provided an extra challenge to the situation. But see the previous paragraph for why this just delayed things instead of making the situation more dangerous.
I did have the monsters walk into the trap that the adventurers set, not to just reward the party for thinking of it, but it also felt like something the monsters would do.
Our session was cut short when one of the group had life call them up and call them back to base. We could have continued however having just finished the combat we were at a natural break point.
Last night was my first ever time running a Shadowdark rpg session.
As I have said in the session planning posts we were using the adventure that comes with the free Quick Start Kit, The Scarlet Minotaur. Which meant naturally we were also using the rules that come in that kit. Sadly the full rules are in Backerkit limbo at the moment.
I had hoped I would have access to the pdf version of the full rule set by the time we played. But I knew it would be cutting it close.
Not having the full rule set did not stop us having fun.
Anyway like my D&D post mortems I will be looking at what worked, what didn’t during the session.
First off I have to say I love the mechanic for torches, where they last one hour real time. It does force the players to be a bit more focused in their discussions about what to do.
Related to that I think the always on initiative order also helped and made sure everyone got to do something and had their moment.
I did think I was going to have a tpk with the very first encounter with the party. One of the party made a loud noise in the very first room that when I rolled to see if an encounter occurred, it did. Then I rolled to see what the encounter was and it was a massive centipede. Although I did give the party 2 xp at the end of the combat, as I thought they had earnt it defeating a level 4 monster.
Luckily my rolls as the GM were not good, although I did get a couple of hits in. It was getting close for one of them.
And after that first encounter roll, I never rolled another encounter all evening!
It took a while for the wizard to get used to how spell casting worked. They felt they should be doing more than just casting magic missile. But as we discussed at the end of the session there is that push your luck element to casting magic. Where if you fail the casting check you lose the spell until you have rested. Plus there is the whole issue of the natural 1 and the negative things that can happen.
If you compare the GM area for the session to the one I have for D&D I’ve never played with so little gear. But it also means the rolls, etc were in the open.
It did help having a print out of the annotated level map to refer to, whilst I had an A3 copy of the map on the table for the players.
For me the jury is still out for the movement in combat. The close,near, and far. It kinda worked for me. I think it flowed better.
My cheat sheet was useful. I did find myself referring to it more than once. But thats not a surprise whilst using a new system and still getting to grips with it.
I would like a Shadowdark version of the monster and spell cards that Kelsey did for D&D 5e. I like these as a quick reference that way I’m not forever flicking between pages.
Overall we had fun, and another session to continue further into the dungeon is on the books.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else. Just say no to metagaming!
Over the course of this campaign we’ve had one founding player leave (personal reasons). Plus two new players join. With one of those briefly with us before our schedule got back on track and clashed with other stuff.
So we had space at the table for a new player.
Graham is a friend of Shane’s who he plays in another group with.
He’s playing a cleric sent to look after Jeb.
I think the session went well with Graham and looking forward to adventuring with him.
The session itself was once again wandering around the endless warrens looking for Rullus Hobb and his hostages.
The party awoke from their long rest to lizard folk holding the hostage Luke’s character Drenol and Grahams. This was the best I could come up with of introducing a new character to the game mid dungeon.
I think this could have been better. Especially if I’d made the game of Life or Death best of three for the freedom of the hostages.
I’ve tried not having this dungeon crawl be one where the players are fighting for every foot they explore. However I think the players are not enjoying the exploring side based on comments like “not more tunnels and doors”.
Despite that major drawback. I think using the Caves of Chaos map, alongside the dungeon encounters deck has worked well from a DM make it up as you go way.
The dungeon encounter cards have been interesting especially in seeing how the players react or interpret the cards encounter. Sometimes they read too much into the encounter and I’ve just rolled with it.
The big combat encounter at the end was a “swarm” of skeletons. However with the rogue character using psychic blades from a distance I decided to introduce a second threat (a basilisk) coming in behind the rogue.
The reason I went basilisk was because one of the encounter cards had one on, I had the 2D standee handy too.
I think it went ok. The basilisk did some damage. The rogue learnt hiding and throwing psychic blades is not always going to be safe.
Right I’ve got some prep to do for the next session.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.
We were two players down this session. For one it was the second session in a row they had missed so I need to find out if they are still wanting to be in the group.
The second was due to illness. So instead of some-one controlling their character I made an excuse up that the character needed to rest after the previous sessions efforts and would catch them up.
Even so we started later than planned which meant a shorter session.
The party are still working their way through the endless warrens (or the Caves of Chaos map I am using for them).
This part of the campaign is a bit of a dungeon crawl. But not a slugfest for sure. They are getting encounters of some sort in most of the rooms on the map that are driven by the dungeon encounters deck.
I’d like to think that the players are having an interesting exploration of the dungeon that isn’t just a murder hobo slaughterhouse with a combat in each room.
In fact the only possible combat they could have had didn’t happen as the ogre failed the check and had to go off and eat the ogre corpse in a nearby room.
But the next session things are going to be more violent.
They still have no idea about the two fungi they are carrying. We’ll see what they will do with them. The temptation to say “just eat them for crying out” is just so strong sometimes during the session. But I resist and don’t give in.
Right I think that covers it for the session I’ll see you in the next session prep post.
The party woke up to their neighbour telling them that she was unable to find the jewelled idol she was planning to sell to pay them for getting rid of the rats. She suspected it had been stolen and had reported it to the authorities.
Further up the street there was a commotion and wailing when a dead body had been found in one of the houses. It was a mystery as to what had caused the death. But foul means were suspected.
The streets were also abuzz with the rumour that Rullus Hobb had kidnapped members of the Golden Council.
After a shopping trip to stock up on supplies the party headed off to the Endless Warrens in search of the hideout where Rullus Hobb was hiding with his hostages.
The party found an entrance to a cave that they suspect was the hideout. After fighting an undead drake, the party continued exploring the caves.
Post Mortem
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.
Has it been two weeks already? Time flies by.
But it’s nice to be back to a regular time to meet up.
On a practical level our session was less than ideal with things being a bit cramped. As the photo below shows instead of our usual two big tables giving us space to spread out. We were down to small tables and using chairs!
This was a session that was very much made up as I went along.
I seeded some plot lines such as the Bagman. But the one the party decided to go with was pursuing Rullus Hobb. Especially as it transpired he now had some of the Golden Council hostage. Which might also mean that Adel is amongst the hostages.
This has seen the party enter the Endless Warrens. For this I needed a map so I used the Caves of Chaos map from the classic Keep on the Borderlands module. I keep an A3 copy of the Caves of Chaos in my DM folder along with a two or three others just for this sort of situation. The version of the map I use is the one by Dyson Logos.
Obviously I needed to populate the section of the cave they were exploring. For this I was using the Objects of Intrigue – Underground deck. Along with the fumbled searches deck.
I like these two decks a lot.
The Objects of Intrigue deck did allow me to fill the rooms with “interesting” encounters that weren’t all about combat. From this the party have ended up with two large mushrooms that they haven’t discovered are rather beneficial to them if eaten.
I didn’t get a chance or more likely didn’t need to use the Pathfinder NPC deck.
I did use the jewelled owl puzzle which seemed to work ok.
Before the next session I need to stat out the villain plus the Bagman.
The party hadn’t been back at their digs long before there was a knock on their door. Drenol, Jeb, and Babs answered the door.
It was their neighbour a gnome called Nala. She needed their help. Her husband Hornwin had gone down into their cellar and hadn’t come back up and she was worried. Apparently they had a rat problem.
After a little debate whether they would help, they did indeed end up going next door to find Nala’s husband.
In the basement after destroying a swarm of spiders, triggering a stink cloud and throwing up. The trio found Hornwin lying unconscious in the corner of a room that had dire giant rats in it.
After defeating the dire giant rats and a were rat that appeared the party had the corpse of Hornwin in front of them. It would seem Hornwin had been a were rat.
After breaking the news to Nala that here husband was dead the trio returned home.
Post Mortem
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.
This was our first session since the end of November.
Work shifts and the seasonal thing that happens in December being the main factors getting in the way of the session happening.
The change of job opened up my ability to say “I’m free on …” and for regular sessions to be planned again. I think if the work front hadn’t changed the campaign would of just ended. My old job was getting so that planning or committing to anything was just not possible.
It was good to be back behind the DM screen.
As there was fifty percent of the players unable to make this session I went with a one shot adventure for those that were there.
I went with a Mike Shae adventure idea he said he used as an introduction adventure for level one characters of clearing out the basement of the tavern of the rat problem.
But my party were a couple of levels higher. So I could use dire giant rats!
I used a map from the Lazy DM Companion for the basement. Well part of it. I didn’t need the whole thing.
In one of the rooms I added a glyph of warding that when triggered (which it was) cast the spell cloud of stink. If any character had covered their nose (as warned) I gave them advantage on the constitution saving throw. It did lead to a comedic moment of describing the character throwing up with reference to the infamous scene from Team America. With the added bonus of the Babs character slipping up in the resultant pool of vomit.
My dice rolling during combat was atrocious. I don’t think I landed one hit! Although I did roll high on saving throws. So it evened out in the end I suppose.
Once or twice I used the fumbled searches deck to come up with items to find. I should of made a note of the items. One was a book that I said was titled 101 rat recipes, and a burnt bit of parchment. Despite the party trying to find any hidden writing on the parchment they found none. But they only used the old heat and lemon juice ideas to find any. I still have an opening to use this as a plot hook at some point. But I did like using the deck and found it very useful.
I felt the dire giant rats were underwhelming. I think the hit points could have been maybe three times the original value, instead of doubling them. It might have helped if I landed an attack.
I did have the npc they were meant to be saving turn into a were rat. Which they killed.
There was a little discussion over whether the npc got death saving throws. My train of thought was they were killed as a were rat, there was no mention before delivering the killing blow they were “pulling their punch” and aiming to just knock out the npc. So taking the were rat down to zero hit points killed them. As they died they obviously reverted to their original form.
I liked the ingenious use of the bag of holding to get rid of the grimiskas. Now theparty have a bag of holding. I have a plot thread there to pull at some point now.
I thought the session worked well as a side distraction from wherever the main campaign is going for those that were able to make the session.
Later than planned but this has been a busy week at work, and I felt like writing the other post mortem for the taster session first.
So let’s get on with looking at session 10 of the campaign set in Sly Flourish’s City of Arches.
The party met up with Adele and Tantalos outside her Emporium of Magical Relics. Where they were told a mystery person is trying to find out lore and artifacts that will allow the Children of Ibraxus to open an archway to Choul and allow the return of Ibraxus.
Whilst Adele and Tantalos went off to speak to the Golden Council, the party were sent off to Kartan, Tower of the Arcane to speak to archmage Savandra Thricecursed.
Instead of asking about the impending threat of the archway to Choul being opened up, the party decided to find out more about Rullus Hobb (an evil sorcerer who has a pretty large reward out on him). During their conversation with Savandra they were given some items that might help them.
The party adjourned to an inn to unwind and discuss plans. Which saw the party splitting into those that needed to unwind some more, milk contacts for information, and those that needed to get some rest (party poopers).
On the way back to their lodgings Jeb, Babs, and Dottie got attacked by a group of thugs. A fireball and some moves later the thugs were defeated just as the others turned up.
We left our party settling in for a well earned rest at their lodgings.
Post Mortem
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else. #justsaynotometagaming
Work really does get in the way of having a good time!
Like the previous session I had another early shift on the day of our planned session. Which meant another ridiculous long day. However it’s the only way we could fit the session in. So needs must and all that.
This was a role play heavy session. Not my strongest strength as a DM.
It was strange in that sense.
I did end up throwing in an impromptu combat near the end to try and add a contrast to the rest of the session, and draw back in the odd player that may have started to get bored (of which I’m sure there was one).
For that combat I did have the players roll for initiative instead of using the cards to decide it. I used for my initiative roll a number from a list of die rolls I’d done before the session started. That list will be used in future combats.
I still get amazed by what the players pick up on and ignore.
With the players ignoring the thread about the return of Ibraxus and instead concentrating on the manhunt the majority of the secrets and clues went out of the window. They would have been dropped in the conversation with Savandra had they gone down that route.
Yes I could have stared the conversation to the Ibraxus stuff, but that would feel like I was railroading the players. I do like the players to have freedom in what they do. Even if it means I have to throw away what I prepped and improvise on the spot.
Although they will find that whilst they are off doing whatever the return of Ibraxus will progress. Even if it’s snippets of the story they get via Adele and Tantalos, who will be doing everything they can to stop it.
There is a potential John Wick 3 thread I can use that came out of the session with the Drenol character. Having Drenol excommunicated from the mercenary group he is a member of for offing another member might be an interesting sub-plot to follow.
It’s a day or two since the D&D taster session took place. Even longer since the D&D campaign was held. But here we are with the post mortem for the taster first.
Despite a less than conducive environment for playing D&D everyone had a good time, and enjoyed themselves.
The adventure that I went with for the session was The Lost Tomb of the Delian Order (by Matt Colville).
I started the adventure off at the foot of the hill on a dusty road with the owner of a local inn hiring the adventurers to investigate missing people from the nearby village.
The inn keeper gave the party a bloodied bone and told them to break it when they got to the entrance of the tomb. The bloodied bone was a magical item I created to cast the spell aid over the party when it was broken into two.
Sadly the party did not do this.
They finally did use it over the scrying pool.
On a practical level I used The Giant Book of Battle Mats (generously given to me by Shane) along with scatter terrain to give the layout of the tomb.
I should have used my Big Book of Battle Maps because table space was once more limited. I thought before hand we would be using two of the folding 6ft tables.
However unbeknownst to us all, the evening of our taster session at the community centre it was also open mic night.
In my opinion they would have been better off watching us play D&D than listening to the public murder of songs.
That’s why earlier I said that the environment was less than conducive to playing D&D.
The volume of the “performers” murdering rock and pop songs was bordering on making it impossible to play.
The Wizkids 2D miniatures worked well. I think the players enjoyed having something to represent their chosen characters.
The puzzle in the adventure appeared harder than I thought it was. The other group I’ve run this adventure with got it pretty quickly. A fact that when strategically shared with Gavin made him determined to solve the puzzle.
I did give some time at the start of the session for the players to read their character sheets and ask questions. There was a whistle stop tour of the abilities and how an ability check works.
Having multiple copies of the Starter Set rulebooks available was a good call. I think for a taster session for new players they were just right. Especially for finding out the details of the spells. Easier to navigate, and a lot less to search through.
I did half the damage that the goblins did in combat. It seemed the right thing to do considering they low hit points first level characters have. It meant I was able to avoid a tpk. Although it was looking likely at one point!
Having The Arcane Library PC Cards on hand with the pregen details on was useful, and worked well for me.
I think that’s about it for now. Who knows if and when I’ll run another taster session. Maybe it’ll just be an adhoc one one shot for this group instead.
Exploring the chamber they were in the party noticed some murals depicting sacrifices and statues coming to life.
Further exploration of the chamber revealed a pool with a satchel in it. Upon trying to retrieve it the pool of water came to life.
The living water was in fact a water genasi called Samson, who seemed confused about where they were, or how they got there.
Further exploration of the caves lead the party to a chamber with two large pools of water.
After fighting some glowing fungi that temporarily blinded the party by emitting a bright flash of light, they came across a scene in the connecting chamber reminiscent of the cave art they discovered earlier.
The party seeing the living statue decided retreating was the better course of action to take.
The party was left making their way back to Adele’s.
Post Mortem
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
Work shifts meant that our D&D session was bought forward a day to the Friday.
I was still at work, but it was an early shift. So I’d been up since 4am. Tired? You bet.
We were unable to use the normal setup of two tables at our regular hosts. Which meant table space was a premium this evening. None of us had as much space as we’d have liked.
Tonight we added a sixth player to the group Jamie, who is playing a druid (?) water genasi called Samson.
I think the introduction of the new character went fairly well.
Having six in the group should mean having enough at a session to go ahead even if one or two can’t make it.
My Session Notes, & behind the screen
The encounter with the Strobing Fungus was surprisingly challenging for the party. I think being temporarily blinded didn’t help. Or the relative high hit points that the fungi had.
I’m glad the party took the opportunity I gave them to retreat instead of engaging with the Bloodstone Sentinel. With two cult fanatics and Shigmaa behind it ready to join in the attack. This would have been a tpk level encounter. I’m sure more than one of the party would have died if it had gone ahead.
The monsters the group are encountering I’m deliberately not naming as I want them to come up with their own names for them. Unless there is a good chance they would know about the creature then I’m happy to name the creature.
There wasn’t much chance to drop more than one of the secrets and clues. However there was the opportunity to at least forewarn what was ahead.
Luckily I think some of them can be used in the next session.
Which means we have a main story arc in progress potentially that is all about stopping the return of the demon prince Ibraxus from the realm of Choul. This will mean possibly a heist being done on Kartan, Tower of the Arcane and going deep under the city making their way to the second of the two lowest arches in the City of Arches, the Gateway to Choul.
In the meantime we have the Esme rival to Adele plot line to develop, plus the bounty hunter one.
Plus this ticking time bomb…
I don’t roll for initiative I shuffle up a “deck” of initiative cards and hand them out. Copying the initiative system used in such systems as the mutant year zero engine and Alien RPG.
I find it speeds up combat a little. It does have some advantages over rolling for initiative.
There was a comment made that they didn’t like this way of handling the initiative.
I need to think about this. I’ll probably switch to rolling for initiative with my monster initiative pre-rolled. A small speed up on my side.
As a whole this wasn’t a session that I got much from. It felt a bit flat. Maybe that was because I was tired.
With a free week the party spent the time on some self improvement, studying, practicing, and even some research.
Outside the streets of the lower reaches were a buzz with the news of a heroic party rescuing a family from a collapsed villa in the Second Reaches.
Outside on their way to Adele’s Emporium the party were approached by Esme a rival of Adele. Who tried to bribe the party to spy on Adele for her.
At the Emporium the party found a note on the door saying Adele was in the Second Reaches investigating the ruined villa.
So the party made their way to the Second Reaches looking for Adele.
Eventually they found Adele, but not before upsetting a few locals and attracting the attention of an officer of the Silver Talons.
At the ruined villa they met Adele coming out of a cave entrance that had been revealed when the villa collapsed. While talking to Adele Tantalos joined them. He’d been helping Adele.
Adele and Tantalos left to return to the emporium to research the newly revealed chambers.
The party entered the tunnel and immediately went up some steps into a chamber that they soon discovered had two young unkept, spooky looking children at the end of it.
We leave the party in the chamber having defeated the spooky children.
Behind the screen
Session notes
Post Mortem
Yep it’s that part of the post where I share my thoughts on the session and ideas for future ones. So I need to say this.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
The session itself was about two hours of play, and about twenty minutes of finishing off character levelling up.
It would have been nice to have a longer session, but time constraints with my dog-sitter put a dampeners on that.
For this session I had used the Tome of Beasts 2 from Kobold Press for most of the potential monsters to use in the encounters.
I do like this book as an alternative to the Monster Manual. It really does make encounters feel fresh and mysterious. Especially for the players.
For the NPCs that the players encountered I used the newly arrived Monte Cook NPC cards plus my Pathfinder ones I had already been using.
I love the art on these cards, plus the extra info on the back of them.
That extra info on the back really does help during the session to help (however poorly) flesh out the NPC at the table. And I don’t have to make up a name either.
During this session I did feel like the DM who says no.
Like pointing out that a red Slaad is from a different plane and wouldn’t be known on this one.
I really like to say yes and see where we go with it. But it was hard today because the choices being made were based on information that the characters would not know.
This was a very heavy role play session. Something I’m not great at. So not sure this was a fun session for the players.
For me and I’m not sure if the players felt this way too, that they were being railroaded to the ruined villa and the mysterious chambers it revealed.
There was a hook to go after a wanted criminal they could have done instead.
For the map for the mysterious chambers I used the goblin caves map from the “old” D&D starter set. It seemed the right size to start exploring. Although in future I’d love to use larger more complex dungeons.
In the meantime with this repurposed map I have to populate it with appropriate monsters, which for this dungeon is using appropriate monsters from the tome of beasts 2. Well ones that look really cool.
This was also the first session that I used the DM Screen from the Dungeon Kit instead of the DM Screen Reincarnated. No one even noticed the switch!
