Well, I was able to get to a playtest last night of D&D Next. Though, I didn't go in as the DM, but as a player. That is fine, since I might be able to get some players together for a playtest as a DM soonish.
I must say that I like it! I went in with three other players, well ok let me back up...
The VERY first thing I did was play with just the DM and I was running three characters. The Human priest, the dwarf fighter and the halfling rouge. I went into the cave on the right, the first one on the second level and was almost wiped out by the orcs there. The fighter went down, the priest ran off with the dwarf dragging behind him and the halfing, well the halfling couldn't do much. (I was lucky that the DM allowed for the other two members of the playtest to be nearby and ready to lend aid. POtherwise, I would have been smoked.
But, then I had help with some other players and when we started again, we were able to destroy the orc lair. We had a nearly full playtest, the only class not used was the rouge. Which I might try if given a chance down the line. I played the human priest of Pelor. However, it almost cost the dwarf his life, since the wizard decided to use grease to great effect. Then, thought using his shocking grasp would be a way to take down a prone enemy. He did not realize it might ignite the grease. Or, that pouring water on the table (which was on fire) would spread the grease fire around. (Yes, the mage wasn't thinking clearly, at all.)
Overall, I will say that the playtest was fun. I like the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. I am still sort of offput by the at-will powers of magic missile and radiant lance.
I was part of the Live Chat put on by D&D Next and they did say they would probably tone done the spells. Which, I like, yet I don't want magic missile to go back to 4E with a static number. I would say bump it back up to an actual spell. Yes, it can only be used as often as it was memorized, but giving a mage a spam button, and the priest too, felt wonky to me.
I know that without them, most people will see mages and clerics as "useless" after using their spells. A wizard or mage doesn't lose the ability to cast, he is still a mage. He has just grown tired and cannot channel the arcane forces anymore. I would say if you want to keep "spamming" the magic missile button, then that is fine. Yet, there must be a cost to it. It starts to wear away at your CON stat, or eats away at hit points or something.
However, I did think of a compromise. Allow for the magic missile to be the cantrip d4+1, yet it does not scale. The spell magic missile, that you could get at 1st level, does scale as you level up.
Showing posts with label session write-up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label session write-up. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Apologizes and LotFP game session!
First, sorry for being so quiet this past week. Been trying to find a job. Hasn't been working out, but I strive to do what I can.
Which leads me to this post. Raggi is going to offer some cash for people who create modules for his LotFP rpg. I am in!
And, it started when I first read his post. It got my head spinning out ideas and plots and many erasing them since much of LotFP is about being very weird and different. Not, "hey I have ten rooms and I need something in each of them."
However, it also gave me a twinge of desire to play this system in some way. So, a few days ago when I knew we wouldn't be playing our weekly 1E/Hackmaster mash-up of ToEE, I tried to get the others to roll up characters. It fizzled when another player, after having spent the weekend at Comi-Con, bailed because of sleep needs (don't blame him.)
Then, last night, I got a few friends together and we rolled up characters for the game. Our cast of characters include:
Barlin Darkrock: 1st lvl. Neutral Dwarf
Mars Blackstone: 1st lvl. Neutral Dwarf
Merille: 1st. lvl. Chaotic Magic-User
Clarence: 1st lvl. Lawful Specialist
They arrived int he town of Crestin in different ways. The dwarves, after feeling the NEED to LIVE again, left their mountain hold and journeyed away to seek adventure. The magic-user needed to get away from the pervy old master, leaving his crooked mage tower behind her and Clarence read about the missing people in the town, crept aboard a wagon train and sleep until he got to Crestin. (I love how the Specialist is playing Lawful. In any game with the nine alignments, he would be playing more chaotic neutral. He is letting Fate decide what to do, he believes Fate has a plan for him. Love it.)
Everyone but the magic-user, who has been in close proximity to this town for a long time, sees something wrong with this town. The owner of the inn, the Fishhook Inn, and mayor Hynd, is grumpy and one handed. The people in general have a gray pallor to them. After several hours of excellent role playing, and trouble making in the town, the group finds its way to the Tower of the Forest. (One of them that should be pointed out is that the magic-user insulted the dwarves and was knocked unconscious by Barlin. She tried to cast a spell and was stopped by Barlin's cousin Mars. From then on, Mirelle was on 1hp.) Clarence got their first and used his torch to light up the entire first floor. A large two hundred foot oval shaped room with wall sconces every ten feet. When the others arrived, he was already going down the East stairway leading down. The dwarves went becasue they were given a job by the apothecary Old Bob to clear out the tower, if they found any evil inside and to prove they did it, bring back a rune stone from the altar in the basement of the tower.
Mirelle followed, finding him tinkering with a door a hundred feet down. When he opened it, a giant spider tried to attack. Mirelle fled while Clarence tried to hold the door closed. The dwarves come to the rescue of the Specialist, though they don't realize another larger spider is waiting. It leapt into the fray and was demolished by the three, yet not before draining Mars to 1hp.
Meanwhile, Mirelle is at the bottom of the stairs and finds a long passageway into the darkness. She hears a roar and tries to get as much cover as she can as a charging ape-man comes careening out of the darkness. She fights the ape-man, smacking it hard with her staff, yet suffers a blow that knocks her down to -1hp.
Hearing the fracas, the rest of the party comes down to see her getting hauled away by this ape thing. The Dwarf Mars attacks, charges and strikes a might blow. Yet, in the ensuing fight, he is killed. Below -3 and bled out. His cousin Barlin cries out and strikes the ape thing down and takes his cousin's body. Clarence binds the wounds of Mirelle and they both get the idea to visit her master.
"He is a wizard, magic is needed here." -Clarence.
After dealing with some wolves, and giving the town a wide berth, the two conscious players get their way to Ghren, the wizard. He allows them in and tells them there is something that can be done. Has the two unconscious (okay, technically, a dead and an unconscious) character in two metal seats that face each other, with a large rough hewn crystal in between in a large metal table. The table and chairs are all one piece. (This will have its own write up soon.) The other interesting feature is the metal spike in front of each seat.
Ghren communed, after feeling up Mirelle, (One reason she left was so she could get away from the perv) and found she wished to sacrifice her life for the dwarf's. She wanted to go on to be a part of the swirling Chaotic Vortex. Ghren, agreeing to help, grabbed her hand and the dwarf's and slammed them onto the spikes. After a light show and sparks, the dwarf awoke with 1hp and the body of Mirelle dissolved into dust.
While the two dwarves discussed what happened, mostly Mars telling Barlin that he needed to stop reacting violently to everything, Clarence told Ghren what happened and was given a job to find a torch made of ebony metal that supposedly had the secrets of dark fire.
Last thoughts for now, it was an amazing session and I apologize if this was a long post. But, it was a really fun session. And I find it very interesting that the character with the "best stats" Mars, was the first to actually die. Though, he was able to be raised. (Yet, the foul things he has seen and has become a part of make the evil GM part of me laugh.) Also, LotFP is amazing and is as a friend of mine said, Nintendo hard. (We are talking the old school 8-bit console, not the newest ones.)
Which leads me to this post. Raggi is going to offer some cash for people who create modules for his LotFP rpg. I am in!
And, it started when I first read his post. It got my head spinning out ideas and plots and many erasing them since much of LotFP is about being very weird and different. Not, "hey I have ten rooms and I need something in each of them."
However, it also gave me a twinge of desire to play this system in some way. So, a few days ago when I knew we wouldn't be playing our weekly 1E/Hackmaster mash-up of ToEE, I tried to get the others to roll up characters. It fizzled when another player, after having spent the weekend at Comi-Con, bailed because of sleep needs (don't blame him.)
Then, last night, I got a few friends together and we rolled up characters for the game. Our cast of characters include:
Barlin Darkrock: 1st lvl. Neutral Dwarf
Mars Blackstone: 1st lvl. Neutral Dwarf
Clarence: 1st lvl. Lawful Specialist
They arrived int he town of Crestin in different ways. The dwarves, after feeling the NEED to LIVE again, left their mountain hold and journeyed away to seek adventure. The magic-user needed to get away from the pervy old master, leaving his crooked mage tower behind her and Clarence read about the missing people in the town, crept aboard a wagon train and sleep until he got to Crestin. (I love how the Specialist is playing Lawful. In any game with the nine alignments, he would be playing more chaotic neutral. He is letting Fate decide what to do, he believes Fate has a plan for him. Love it.)
Everyone but the magic-user, who has been in close proximity to this town for a long time, sees something wrong with this town. The owner of the inn, the Fishhook Inn, and mayor Hynd, is grumpy and one handed. The people in general have a gray pallor to them. After several hours of excellent role playing, and trouble making in the town, the group finds its way to the Tower of the Forest. (One of them that should be pointed out is that the magic-user insulted the dwarves and was knocked unconscious by Barlin. She tried to cast a spell and was stopped by Barlin's cousin Mars. From then on, Mirelle was on 1hp.) Clarence got their first and used his torch to light up the entire first floor. A large two hundred foot oval shaped room with wall sconces every ten feet. When the others arrived, he was already going down the East stairway leading down. The dwarves went becasue they were given a job by the apothecary Old Bob to clear out the tower, if they found any evil inside and to prove they did it, bring back a rune stone from the altar in the basement of the tower.
Mirelle followed, finding him tinkering with a door a hundred feet down. When he opened it, a giant spider tried to attack. Mirelle fled while Clarence tried to hold the door closed. The dwarves come to the rescue of the Specialist, though they don't realize another larger spider is waiting. It leapt into the fray and was demolished by the three, yet not before draining Mars to 1hp.
Meanwhile, Mirelle is at the bottom of the stairs and finds a long passageway into the darkness. She hears a roar and tries to get as much cover as she can as a charging ape-man comes careening out of the darkness. She fights the ape-man, smacking it hard with her staff, yet suffers a blow that knocks her down to -1hp.
Hearing the fracas, the rest of the party comes down to see her getting hauled away by this ape thing. The Dwarf Mars attacks, charges and strikes a might blow. Yet, in the ensuing fight, he is killed. Below -3 and bled out. His cousin Barlin cries out and strikes the ape thing down and takes his cousin's body. Clarence binds the wounds of Mirelle and they both get the idea to visit her master.
"He is a wizard, magic is needed here." -Clarence.
After dealing with some wolves, and giving the town a wide berth, the two conscious players get their way to Ghren, the wizard. He allows them in and tells them there is something that can be done. Has the two unconscious (okay, technically, a dead and an unconscious) character in two metal seats that face each other, with a large rough hewn crystal in between in a large metal table. The table and chairs are all one piece. (This will have its own write up soon.) The other interesting feature is the metal spike in front of each seat.
Ghren communed, after feeling up Mirelle, (One reason she left was so she could get away from the perv) and found she wished to sacrifice her life for the dwarf's. She wanted to go on to be a part of the swirling Chaotic Vortex. Ghren, agreeing to help, grabbed her hand and the dwarf's and slammed them onto the spikes. After a light show and sparks, the dwarf awoke with 1hp and the body of Mirelle dissolved into dust.
While the two dwarves discussed what happened, mostly Mars telling Barlin that he needed to stop reacting violently to everything, Clarence told Ghren what happened and was given a job to find a torch made of ebony metal that supposedly had the secrets of dark fire.
Last thoughts for now, it was an amazing session and I apologize if this was a long post. But, it was a really fun session. And I find it very interesting that the character with the "best stats" Mars, was the first to actually die. Though, he was able to be raised. (Yet, the foul things he has seen and has become a part of make the evil GM part of me laugh.) Also, LotFP is amazing and is as a friend of mine said, Nintendo hard. (We are talking the old school 8-bit console, not the newest ones.)
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