Thursday 6pm - D&D 5E, 6th Level Crusaders - Shadows of Rappan Athuk
This game was my attempt at improv-style D&D, and it was fun mostly for those I played with (friends), but I wasn't happy with the adventure itself. I didn't have a good grasp of the the D&D math yet, so I was fumbling some as I tried to do some stuff on the fly. The adventure boiled down to being two combat encounters strung together, basically.
Grade: B
Friday 8am - Dungeon World - Fortress of the Ur-Mage
This game was a ton of fun, and I really enjoyed the Dungeon World rules and mechanics. I can't go into any plot stuff, for NDA reasons. More structured, less improv. The heroes died more than once, and only two survived to the very end after defeating the big bad!
Grade: A
Friday 1pm - Dungeon World - Gauntlet of the Fallen Godkings
A dungeon crawl with a mix of Egyptian and biblical themes. My players had fun, I think, and one ended up becoming the next uber-god. I think I may retire this plot for any future runs. It was fun, but when you read about my second run of this game (below), you'll understand.
Grade: B+
Friday 6pm - D&D 5E - Crucible of the Gods
This slot was supposed to be another Rappan Athuk game, but at the last second I swapped out the Fourthcore module for it. It ran GREAT! Seems that 1st level 4E characters equate to 6th level 5E characters, or pretty close anyway. The players loved the mix of combat and puzzles and theme of the Crucible. But, they dinked away their time and never even saw the final encounter. They got three divine skulls, and time was up!
Grade: A
Saturday 8am - Dungeon World - Fortress of the Ur-Mage
A replay of Friday's game. The players went a slightly different way, but in the end they also managed to kill the big bad with only one left alive. Once again, the players really enjoyed the mix of battle and puzzles, and really trying to figure out the key to the fortress.
Grade: A
Saturday 1pm - D&D 5E - Crucible of the Gods
A new group of players this time, and they were able to figure out the Crucible, defeat the Ruach and light the divine brazier with 15 minutes to spare! My favorite moment was when the 15 year old daughter figured out the puzzle of the faces, when the dad was very skeptical that it could even be solved!
Grade: A
Saturday 6pm - Dungeon World - Gauntlet of the Fallen Godkings
In my last game on Saturday night, it was supposed to be a repeat of the other game... but I then started to pose those initial questions to the players, and they added so much detail that I threw my planning to the side and went with it! By the end, the adventurers found out that the were not fantasy characters, but inmates in a illegal correctional hospital undergoing illegal psycho-experiments (complete with hallucinatory drugs!). In the end, they killed the doctor who put them there... and a cliffhanger... would they self-inject to go back to the fantasy land, or face the harsh light of the real-modern world? This question was left intentionally unanswered, but posed to the players as the final scene ended.
Grade: A+ (It was awesome)
Grade: A+ (It was awesome)
For Crucible: Did you use 4E monster stats and DCs or did you do some adjusting there? Any weird disconnects pop up?
ReplyDeleteSince this was something I decided on running 30 minutes prior to the game, I really had to think on my feet.
ReplyDeleteThe DMG 5E has that great table for "here are the normal, hard, deadly numbers" for DCs and Saves, and I used that instead of the 4E "+7 vs Reflex" stuff. For straight-forward attacks and damage, the numbers in the module were pretty much spot on, using +6 or +7 vs AC and damage seemed to invoke the right level of terror in players as hit points dwindled.
Sometimes, to give that extra hurt, I'd roll damage with "advantage"... rolling damage twice and taking the better result. That tended to shift damage into a higher range, and was just the extra spice to make players feel vulnerable.
I did not include divine boasting, but I do want to next time. I ignored a lot of effects about sapping healing surges and the like. When in doubt, I'd impose advantage/disadvantage stuff which seems more 5E-ish.
All in all, I ran the monsters and traps in a Dungeon World style. Make up stuff as you go, keep consistent with what you decide. And of course, several encounters work very well (Lyth, Kotaresh #1) as they test player knowledge and skill, not players!
Oh, and for the Dracolisk, I used the rules on petrifaction from the Monster Manual's Medusa. I ruled that if all three heads concentrated on on target, that target rolled with disadvantage on their save!
ReplyDelete