Dungeons and Dragons: *spoiler-free for Allie and Hannah
Greetings fellow adventurers! This week I will be giving a brief recap of the events of our party's first session of Dungeons and Dragons. I had originally planned to do a podcast of sorts for every time we play, so that the audience could feel more immersed in the game. However, this plan did not exactly work out due to some technical difficulties with the voice recorder and audio editing software. I am attempting to learn how to use either Audacity or Ocenaudio to edit down our sessions into a highlights reel rather than just posting two hours of footage. Hopefully by next session I will have resolved these issues.
Most of the events and worldbuilding that I wanted to happen went off without much issue. All of my players had very positive feedback for me on how I ran my first game. In hindsight, I realized a few elements of combat that I messed up on, but I did not teach any of my players false information instead I just left out a few elements. For my character's first roleplaying and world interactions, I introduced these basic mechanics in the Sour Pig adventurer's tavern, were the players received their first adventure.
I was terrified of accidentally making the combat encounters too difficult and accidentally killing my players' characters, but everything worked out fine. On a whim I made the first encounter a lone wolf attacking the camp, which the players defeated with no issue. Eventually the group reached the Clear View Point Outpost and cleared out all the bandits and got some cool loot. I also introduced some luck mechanics at this point, with Xanaphia rolling really high and finding a rare dagger and Nyssaadi rolling low and only finding junk.
The adventurers then made their way to the final destination of the session and I let the players free to do whatever they pleased for the evening. Notably, Snargog managed to trade his talents as a drag queen for free lodging in a tavern.
And that's all for this session. Feel free to ask me any questions about game mechanics and I'm planning some exciting adventures for the future!
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Genius Hour 2.2
Dungeons and Dragons: * spoilers, Allie and Hannah do not read
Greetings fellow adventurers! This week I'll be planning my introductory session and a pre-quest of sorts to introduce my players to the basic mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons. At first glance, the premise of this Genius Hour may seem a bit silly, but this project more about teaching myself how to teach others effectively. Due to this, my first session will include most of the main tenants of the game and I'll see what my players enjoy the most. From this input I'll be able to better tailor the world and story to my players' wants.
Now for the story:
All of the players will be running into each other in the town of Port Swordbreak, each having a different reason for being in town. Nyssaadi is in town looking for one of her father's old military friends, Muhrren. Muhrren is the owner of an adventurer's tavern, The Sour Pig, where individuals of the surrounding community put of job contracts for wandering adventurers. A job with a vague description but a large reward requiring a group of three adventurers at the least catches Nyssaadi's eye. Nyssaadi can either ask Muhrren for advice of who to recruit at this point, or can find the other players herself.
Xanaphia happens to be in the tavern at the time, and due to her Folk Hero status among the town folk, whispers of her reputation eventually will reach Nyssaadi's attention. As for Snargog, even though he has only been in town for a few days, he has also made a reputation for himself as being a powerful wizard that's always up for an adventure.
Muhrren will then reveal that he put out the vague quest, and insist that the group of adventurers do a small task for him to prove that they can work well together as a party. He offers a seemingly simple quest for the adventurers to escort a caravan of his through a dangerous mountain pass to the town of Graycott. He also says that he will provide his son, Ivan Shermov, as a guide through the mountains.
Up to this point, what I have planned is relatively simple worldbuilding and practice with interacting in towns with NPCs. After this, the story could take many directions as the adventurers travel on their four day journey through the Clear View Point pass. This will be where I introduce combat mechanics to my players, and what they will fight will be determined by their perception skills.
Between all the wild encounters, Ivan will have time to do some exposition. The players will at first expect there to be a fort at the halfway point of the pass to rest at, but Ivan will reveal that this area has been overtaken by bandits. The players will the decide if they want to fight the bandits and clear the fort, or if they want to take any other course of action. It's probably most likely that they will want to attempt to clear out the fort, and in that case I have a map of the fort, bandit locations, and potential loot already set up.
As I really do not want my players to die on their first session, I made Ivan a fairly powerful ranger that I will be controlling alongside the bandits. If things start looking too rough for any of my players, Ivan will be able to step in. However, I won't be doing this unless it's absolutely necessary.
The adventurers will eventually reach Graycott, where Ivan will give them part of their reward and a bonus as an apology for Muhrren's lie by exclusion about the nature of the quest. The players will have a little bit of downtime to shop around for upgrades before heading back to Port Swordbreak.
Normally, campaigns are not this structured and more is left up to the players. However, most resources I looked at said that first-time players need more structure so they know what all they can do in the game. As I continue on I will most likely be giving the players more liberty to shape the adventure as they please. Although, that is not to say that it's impossible for players to do the unexpected in this session. If the players want to take some creative approaches to problems, I'm all for it. I'll just need to work on thinking quick to fit their actions into the greater narrative of the campaign.
Greetings fellow adventurers! This week I'll be planning my introductory session and a pre-quest of sorts to introduce my players to the basic mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons. At first glance, the premise of this Genius Hour may seem a bit silly, but this project more about teaching myself how to teach others effectively. Due to this, my first session will include most of the main tenants of the game and I'll see what my players enjoy the most. From this input I'll be able to better tailor the world and story to my players' wants.
Now for the story:
All of the players will be running into each other in the town of Port Swordbreak, each having a different reason for being in town. Nyssaadi is in town looking for one of her father's old military friends, Muhrren. Muhrren is the owner of an adventurer's tavern, The Sour Pig, where individuals of the surrounding community put of job contracts for wandering adventurers. A job with a vague description but a large reward requiring a group of three adventurers at the least catches Nyssaadi's eye. Nyssaadi can either ask Muhrren for advice of who to recruit at this point, or can find the other players herself.
Xanaphia happens to be in the tavern at the time, and due to her Folk Hero status among the town folk, whispers of her reputation eventually will reach Nyssaadi's attention. As for Snargog, even though he has only been in town for a few days, he has also made a reputation for himself as being a powerful wizard that's always up for an adventure.
Muhrren will then reveal that he put out the vague quest, and insist that the group of adventurers do a small task for him to prove that they can work well together as a party. He offers a seemingly simple quest for the adventurers to escort a caravan of his through a dangerous mountain pass to the town of Graycott. He also says that he will provide his son, Ivan Shermov, as a guide through the mountains.
Up to this point, what I have planned is relatively simple worldbuilding and practice with interacting in towns with NPCs. After this, the story could take many directions as the adventurers travel on their four day journey through the Clear View Point pass. This will be where I introduce combat mechanics to my players, and what they will fight will be determined by their perception skills.
Between all the wild encounters, Ivan will have time to do some exposition. The players will at first expect there to be a fort at the halfway point of the pass to rest at, but Ivan will reveal that this area has been overtaken by bandits. The players will the decide if they want to fight the bandits and clear the fort, or if they want to take any other course of action. It's probably most likely that they will want to attempt to clear out the fort, and in that case I have a map of the fort, bandit locations, and potential loot already set up.
As I really do not want my players to die on their first session, I made Ivan a fairly powerful ranger that I will be controlling alongside the bandits. If things start looking too rough for any of my players, Ivan will be able to step in. However, I won't be doing this unless it's absolutely necessary.
The adventurers will eventually reach Graycott, where Ivan will give them part of their reward and a bonus as an apology for Muhrren's lie by exclusion about the nature of the quest. The players will have a little bit of downtime to shop around for upgrades before heading back to Port Swordbreak.
Normally, campaigns are not this structured and more is left up to the players. However, most resources I looked at said that first-time players need more structure so they know what all they can do in the game. As I continue on I will most likely be giving the players more liberty to shape the adventure as they please. Although, that is not to say that it's impossible for players to do the unexpected in this session. If the players want to take some creative approaches to problems, I'm all for it. I'll just need to work on thinking quick to fit their actions into the greater narrative of the campaign.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Genius Hour 2.1
Dungeons and Dragons: *spoiler-free for Allie and Hannah
Greetings fellow adventurers! This Genius Hour I will be teaching myself the ins and outs of Dungeons and Dragons, and teaching my players how the game works. I'll be functioning as the game's Dungeon Master, which is quite a demanding role considering the intricacies of the game. I will be in charge of creating an entire fantasy world for my players to explore. The world will be filled with lore and potential adventures, and I will be guiding my players through whatever decisions they make.
As for my players, the first thing I needed to do was find a group of nerds such as myself that were curious about the game. I then sat down with each player and we created a character for them to role play throughout the campaign. I used this as a tool to gauge what the players want from the game. The character creation process is somewhat complicated, so I won't be detailing the full process in this blog post. The basic premise is you create a creature, choose their adventuring class, make a backstory, and roll for their basic stats.
The Characters:
Snargog, played by Hannah, is a rock gnome and a wizard. His specialty of magic is necromancy, although is is weak right now because all characters are level 1. He is from the city of Larkbog, which was mostly comprised of other gnomes and small creatures, and has a pet mastiff named Blarkog. He has a mysterious and haunted past that motivates him to hunt monsters to find redemption.
Nyssaddi Immek, played by Allie, is a dragonborn fighter. Her military background and upraising in the military outpost of Blackridge leads her to be a warrior of legends and a local hero. However, she has grown tired of military life and is on leave to wander the nation in search of her next battle.
Xanaphia Amastacia, played by Rachel Bell, is an elven druid. She spends most of her time in seclusion in the woods between the town of Port Swordbreak and the Baldare Mountains. She spends most of her time communing with nature, but has been known to step in and protect the town from hostile mountain monsters. This has giver her the nickname "The Watcher" in Port Swordbreak and has left her somewhat of a town legend.
For locations and the world as a whole, I decided to start pretty small and simple for beginning. My descriptions of the world may seem a little much to those unfamiliar with the game, but they are nothing compared to some resources I've looked at.
The nation the adventure will be taking place in is the Wayrand Empire in the world of Calterra. The Empire has only been around for about 100 years and was created after a successful uprising against the previous Amakiir Dynasty. Aesir Wayrand, commander of the rebels, pushed the oppressive and elitist previous Dynasty north to the unforgiving lands of Wintervale. Even in current times, there is an ongoing border war between the old Dynasty and the Empire.
Besides the northern border and the Fey Wilds, the rest of the country is fairly safe and at peace. The Empire is run by a human monarchy, with local elected officials that report to the crown. Being a fairly new nation, there is still some Royal Guard presence in some towns with possible old Dynasty sympathizers. The nation has active industry fueling the northern war efforts, some sea ports for trading, and the capitol city of Venzor holds an illustrious magic academy.
Magic in this world is fairly common and is known to be the remnants from when the old gods lived on this plane. Magic users are esteemed in more rural areas, but not so much in cities, Most of the nation has a favorable view of the government, being a much needed reprieve from the restrictive old Dynasty. The elite of the old Dynasty, dark elves, moon elves, and silver dragonborn, are regarded with suspicion in most areas.
And that's all I have for world building this week. Next week I will be preparing for our first session of gameplay, which will be released Genius Hour 2.3. If you want to learn more about D&D, some of the resources I used were dndbeyond.com, a character building website and forum, The Adventure Zone, a D&D podcast I used to familiarize myself with playing, the official D&D rulebook set, and Critical Role, a Youtube channel of a bunch of professional voice actors and D&D players with very advanced and complicated campaigns.
Greetings fellow adventurers! This Genius Hour I will be teaching myself the ins and outs of Dungeons and Dragons, and teaching my players how the game works. I'll be functioning as the game's Dungeon Master, which is quite a demanding role considering the intricacies of the game. I will be in charge of creating an entire fantasy world for my players to explore. The world will be filled with lore and potential adventures, and I will be guiding my players through whatever decisions they make.
As for my players, the first thing I needed to do was find a group of nerds such as myself that were curious about the game. I then sat down with each player and we created a character for them to role play throughout the campaign. I used this as a tool to gauge what the players want from the game. The character creation process is somewhat complicated, so I won't be detailing the full process in this blog post. The basic premise is you create a creature, choose their adventuring class, make a backstory, and roll for their basic stats.
The Characters:
Snargog, played by Hannah, is a rock gnome and a wizard. His specialty of magic is necromancy, although is is weak right now because all characters are level 1. He is from the city of Larkbog, which was mostly comprised of other gnomes and small creatures, and has a pet mastiff named Blarkog. He has a mysterious and haunted past that motivates him to hunt monsters to find redemption.
Nyssaddi Immek, played by Allie, is a dragonborn fighter. Her military background and upraising in the military outpost of Blackridge leads her to be a warrior of legends and a local hero. However, she has grown tired of military life and is on leave to wander the nation in search of her next battle.
Xanaphia Amastacia, played by Rachel Bell, is an elven druid. She spends most of her time in seclusion in the woods between the town of Port Swordbreak and the Baldare Mountains. She spends most of her time communing with nature, but has been known to step in and protect the town from hostile mountain monsters. This has giver her the nickname "The Watcher" in Port Swordbreak and has left her somewhat of a town legend.
For locations and the world as a whole, I decided to start pretty small and simple for beginning. My descriptions of the world may seem a little much to those unfamiliar with the game, but they are nothing compared to some resources I've looked at.
The nation the adventure will be taking place in is the Wayrand Empire in the world of Calterra. The Empire has only been around for about 100 years and was created after a successful uprising against the previous Amakiir Dynasty. Aesir Wayrand, commander of the rebels, pushed the oppressive and elitist previous Dynasty north to the unforgiving lands of Wintervale. Even in current times, there is an ongoing border war between the old Dynasty and the Empire.
Besides the northern border and the Fey Wilds, the rest of the country is fairly safe and at peace. The Empire is run by a human monarchy, with local elected officials that report to the crown. Being a fairly new nation, there is still some Royal Guard presence in some towns with possible old Dynasty sympathizers. The nation has active industry fueling the northern war efforts, some sea ports for trading, and the capitol city of Venzor holds an illustrious magic academy.
Magic in this world is fairly common and is known to be the remnants from when the old gods lived on this plane. Magic users are esteemed in more rural areas, but not so much in cities, Most of the nation has a favorable view of the government, being a much needed reprieve from the restrictive old Dynasty. The elite of the old Dynasty, dark elves, moon elves, and silver dragonborn, are regarded with suspicion in most areas.
And that's all I have for world building this week. Next week I will be preparing for our first session of gameplay, which will be released Genius Hour 2.3. If you want to learn more about D&D, some of the resources I used were dndbeyond.com, a character building website and forum, The Adventure Zone, a D&D podcast I used to familiarize myself with playing, the official D&D rulebook set, and Critical Role, a Youtube channel of a bunch of professional voice actors and D&D players with very advanced and complicated campaigns.
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