first night of 5e lost of mines of phendelver - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#2 Guest855761860 Jul 06, 2014 21:38:51	Spoilers, man! Delete the spoilers!!!
#3 LordArioch1 Jul 06, 2014 21:43:02	So we played tonight for the first time. Two of us rolled up new characters..Wood Elf Fighter (archer style), and high elf wizard...the other two players were new to the game and used the pregen rogue and cleric...So we had some fun roleplaying figuring out why we were all together and where we going...Our DM is very experienced and blended some of the start MInes hooks with some of his own based on our backgrounds. Basically the 4 of us were bring some goods to Phendelver for the pregen dwarfs cousins (i think) SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO SPOIL ANYTHING!!! We headed down the road as group and came upon the two dead horses with arrows in them...We immediately thought it was an ambush and the rogue went up ahead to scout it out...successful sneak check to hide in the brushes...The dwarf and elf fighter rode in the front of the wagon carefully approaching the horses...Elf fighter was scanning both sides of the brush not noticing anything because he rolled horrible perception checks...The dwarf gets out of the cart to check on the horses and motions for the elf fighter to join him to help push the horses out of the way as they were blocking the wagon path...The elf fighter joins the dwarf as the elf wizard gets out and moves along side the wagon to look at both sides of the road for an ambush...He failed his perception check as well...Needless to say we got ambushed...Two arrows flew from above on the right side of the road hitting their mark and dealing 5 dmg to the dwarf and elf wizard...Two goblins that were hiding just to the side of the road in the bush jumped out and slashed at the dwarf and the elf fighter in leather armor. The dwarf was hit again taking 5 dmg bringing him to 1 hp. The melee goblin missed the elf fighter. The surprise round ended with the dwarf cleric almost dead and the fighter at 7hps...We rolled initative with 3 horrible rolls and the rogue beating the goblins...The rogue took out his shortbow and sneak attacked one of the goblin archers doing enough dmg in one arrow with sneak attack to take him out...Advantage reallly helped out!!! (they had a little bit of cover on the ridge or something i cant remember) Then the remaining goblin archer shot and hit the elf wizard killing him...well knocking him unconscious ...we had to stop and read the rules about death and dying...so we figured the 3 successes and 3 death saves thing after some reading...The two melee goblins then attacked the dwarf cleric and elf fighter...the dwarf cleric is the pregen one with an 18 AC and the elf fighter had a 15 ac(leather armor) The melee goblin hit the dwarf for 6 dmg knocking him unconscious dropping him ( we now understood death and dying) the other goblin missed the elf fighter... So it was our turns and the elf fighter took out his two scimitars and rolled 2 times not totaling above 12 and missed both attacks...the rogue took out the one of the melee goblins because he was 5 ft from an ally so his sneak attack shot killed it... So round two of iniative had 2 of our party unconscious and 2 goblins dead...We managed to take out the goblins only because the wizard was able to roll a perfect 20 giving him 1 hp and he cast sleep on the remaining 2 goblins...Sorry if i'm skipping ahead... We questioned the goblin after we tied him up and the wizard cast comprehend languages we bribed him with gold and he told us about the the cave of the secret path to the side and the two traps on it and the ambush at the cave entrance...The two experienced players couldnt believe how hard the very first fight was..We also rolled horrible while the DM rolled awesome...but it was almost a TPK on the VERY FIRST COMBAT OF 5E...goblins have a good ac and do decent dmg...Anyway we were failing perception rolls, survival rolls(on the path)...After talking to the captured goblin who was our new friend after we gave him 5 gold, he looked after our wagon and ratted out his entire cave to us( was some fun long roleplaying we did) We made it to the mouth of the cave where the ambushing goblins were,,...up on top of these boards that were on top of some thorny brush on the right side of the cave...failing our stealth checks the elf fighter and halfing rogue approached the the two lookout goblins...the DM ruled that the river was loud enough they didnt hear us despite the crappy stealth checks.. The lookouts had cover and we argued about whether we should shoot them with our bows or not...because if we missed they would be alerted and do god knows what to alert the rest of the goblins that we were there..Well the gods were with the two of us and we shot true and killed both of them with our arrows....We called out to the rest of the group on the other side of the river and they came across to meet us and we proceeded into the cave...We wanted the rogue to scout ahead but it was pitch black and halflings dont have darkvision so he was a useless scout so the elf fighter went ahead and noticed 2 wolves chained in a room..the elf fighter reported back to the party that 2 wolves were just ahead in a room chained to the wall and looked hungry...We decided that the elf fighter who had +4 animal handling would feed the wolves some rations from our packs and try and soothe the wolves...Rolling successfully the wolves sat down contentedly eating...we then searched the area and found an old chimney heading up to a room above about 30 ft...it was here where our adventuring hit another major debate 1 hour long to be exact...here was the problem...we had low athletics skills to climb up and see what was up there but the elf fighter made it up rolling a 17..he had to make another stealth check at the top to avoid some nasty beast some goblins and 2 wolves in a storeroom of some kind...There was nothing to tie his rope to to let the rest of the party up so he climbed back down succeeding on another athletics check but faling his stealth check...we argued a bit about all the rolling going on and things got a bit heated because we knew he was going to roll crappy soon or later with all the rolls needed...We ended up calling it a night at this chimney because we spent one hour discussing how we could all get up quietly without falling and attack the group...it was decided after discussing this that the party as it consited would almost have no chance of successfully making it to the top to attack..and we were kind of annoyed and fed up ...two of us experienced members were discussing how many skill checks we had to do this night and how hard it was to succeed...The halfling rogue felt useless in the cave being the only member without darkvision...(carrying a torch or light source would alert everything in the cave we were coming so he wasnt going to be scouting anytime soon...I was playing the elf fighter and i felt my limited skills and knowing after reading the rules that they were not going to improve that much(the ones i actually had proficiency in nevermind the non proficient ones almost half had a zero in the box because of poor stats or no proficiency...All in all i found the playthrough very difficult and in almost every situation I thought there was a real good chance of dying or failing miserably...I'm sorry for the writing style...I just got home from the session and felt i needed to share with others to see if anyone else shared our difficulty with the very first game of 5e... The DM and the 2 of us that actually played dnd since 1e discussed the game itself after our session talking about how a brand new group of players could even survive getting into the cave at all.. The intial ambush relied on knowing that it was an actual ambush which we did and then succeeding on perception rolls to do something about it which we didnt... The goblins getting a surprise round and then winning iniative almost wiped out our party ! Killing two of us before they could even act! The DM said he rolled amazing rolls and even felt sorry for us and held back a bit he said or we would have all died...i kept saying how would a beginning group even survive?? I felt the skill checks, which seemed hard and knowing they arent realy going to get better caused me to feel nervous about anything i did...I didnt have the heroic sense of adventure after the first fight and walk through to the cave and the chimney scouting had me wondering if i was going to die during the climb, at the top and the trip back down to tell the others...We are playing again this friday night and I think I'm the one feeling so non-heroic and scared to try anything because i know i have a very good chance of failure...The skills are what is causing this apprehension...The DCs for them which seem low on paper...10 or 15 seem very hard for a first level character and too swingy...Rolling a twenty too many times tonight where literally it felt like if i failed the roll I was dead or causing the party instant doom! Once again sorry for this poorly written post about our first adventure...I'm cautiously optimistic for our next session and I know I have to get over my feelings of utter hopelessness and making checks and get back to the FUN of the game... i just didn't feel that JOY of adventure like when i was 12 years old playing 1e, probably because of the damn rules bogging me down as a 40yr old gamer and causing me to question every step of the adventure in a doomy fashion. Please share your thoughts on your first session of the adventure. Thanks
#4 LFK Jul 06, 2014 22:24:53	1) Paragraphs 2) Impressions >>> Play-by-play.
#5 Swede1985 Jul 06, 2014 23:21:01	I was DMing the first session of the playtest and my players had a great time. The ambush did almost knock out the Cleric, but the wizard casted Sleep at the beginning of combat nullifying half the goblins. The party then rushed the other two. As for the cave, they did the chimney as well, and managed to make it up by helping each other and using rope once they got to the top. I think one thing to keep in mind is that the game can be rather deadly at first level, but the xp to second level is only 300, which everyone should get by the end of Cragmaw Cave; Second Level is huge - an additional spell slot for the Wizard, an Action Surge for the fighters, a Bonus Action for the Rogue, and more hit points for everyone. Of course, it also sounds like the dice just weren't rolling great for you guys.
#6 OrwellianHaggis Jul 06, 2014 23:31:33	That sounds like a really unlucky first session for your players. Chin up, not every game will go so poorly. It doesn't sound like the players made any unwise choices or anything, just sounds like bad dice.
#7 LFK Jul 06, 2014 23:38:04	OrwellianHaggis wrote:
#8 Alex_ Jul 06, 2014 23:56:20	I also ran the first part of this adventure today. I got the starter kit with the intention of teaching my wife who wasn't so intimately familiar with pre-4E D&D the system. An interested third party came by and we cnvinced him to join us. He admitted that he had never actually played any edition of D&D before. I explained character creation and how the classes and how they worked. They wanted to get right into the game, so they used the pregen characters. My wife selected the Halfling Rogue- dubbing her self Verna Tealleaf. The other guy chose the Fighter with the Folk Hero background- whom he immediately named Bob because he couldn't think of anything else at the moment. We didn't use a map, minis, or anything. All theater of the mind. Details of the session I used the basic introduction. The pair had been hired to escort the caravan to the town. I had them roll perception checks, and they rolled very high, so I gave them the option of seeing "something" laying in the road off in the distance. They immediately became very wary. After a little debate and failed attempts to get one of the NPCs to go in their stead, my wife decided to sneak ahead to scout. She rolled incredibly well and was able to locate two of the Goblin ambushers without being detected herself. She snuck back and informed the Fighter, and they decided that they would try to ambush their would be ambushers. While the Rogue again rolled well for her Stealth check, the Fighter rolled poorly, and was immediately fired upon by the Goblins as he approached. Initiative saw the Rogue go first, followed by the Fighter, then the Goblins. The Rogue had successfully hidden, giving her advantage on her attack rolls, as well as sneak attack damage. She took down one of the Goblins. The Fighter drew his sword and rushed the other one, takin it down as well. On the second turn, they took down the third in one hit. They took to the combat system very qickly and both players were really pleased with themselves. I had the remaining Goblin- who just saw his allies dispatched so quickly- surrender. The Rogue wanted to interrogate him. The Fighter wanted to execute him. They did one, then the other, and put the heads of all the Goblins on pikes along the road to serve as warnings for any other would-be highway bandits. During the interrogation, the Goblin pretty much told them everything they needed to know about the kidnapped Dwarf and his Human buddy, the general location of their lair, and the even the name of Klarg (who I renamed Grog because I forgot Klarg's name). The pair decided that it would be best to ignore all that, as their main job was to ensure that the caravan got to its destination intact as quickly as possible. No delays. They escorted the caravan to the town's inn without further incident. Of course, when they got there, everyone started asking where the Dwarf they were supposed to meet was. The party seemed reluctant to go back out and investigate the ambush site- instead believing that they could learn more inside the town. The Rogue made note of the fact that her character sheet mentioned her having an aunt in the area. I hadn't read that part of the adventure, so it kind of caught me off guard. I went with it though, and the party seemed to enjoy the character I whipped up: an expy of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies, who guarded her humble farm (and dozen kids) with a loaded crossbow she kept on the front porch. There was some roleplaying- during which time it was once again explained that the Dwarf they were looking for had wandered out of the town and never returned- and the paty decided to spend the night. When morning came, the players still hadn't pieced together that the ambush site and the Dwarf they were looking for were related. So they went back to the tavern and started asking questions in and effort to learn his whereabouts. Again, they were informed by an NPCs that Goblins in the area had been raiding travellers, and that tis was likely the explenation for their missing Dwarven friend. They still seemed to enjoy talking to random NPCs, as I had a habit of giving them ridiculous accents and mannerisms. The sessions started getting sidetracked with jokes before I got everyone back on task. They (finally) decided to go back and actually investigate the site of the ambush, only to find that the heads had been removed. With some Investigate, Perception, and Survival rolls, they were able to figure out how the earlier ambush had taken place, but that after their skirmish, aother Goblin patrol had come through, found their decapitated comrades, and made an attempt to clean up the embarassing mess. They found the trail the Goblins had and got all the way to their base- avoiding all the traps along the way. When they saw the entrance for the cave, they were very cautious. Once again, the Rogue scouted ahead and was able to spy the two Goblin guards without them being any the wiser. The pair decided they would wait out the afternoon and try to strike under cover of night- my pointing out that Goblins had night vision did not deter them. While they waited, the Fighter decided he would use the Rogue's oil and some flasks they had purchased in order to make Molotov Cocktails. While they were waiting, I had a pair of Goblins begin to move down the trail. The pair saw them coming and stalked them until they were some distance away from the entrance of the cave (really good Stealth checks) before attacking. Both sides decided to take cover behind trees and exchange bow fire. Lots of misses. The Fighter player became so annoyed that he decided to lob one of his Molotov Cocktails, which I ruled would be treated like Alchemist Fire (non-proficient ranged attack against an AC of 10, targeting the general area the Goblins were in. 1d6 fire damage, and 1d6 damage every round unless you spent an action to put out the flames). He missed and decided to save the other one for later. They eventually took out the Goblins, but the Fighter was down to 2 HP. The player started to bemoan the party's lack of a healer, when he noticed the Second Wind ability on his character sheet. He used it, rolled max HP, and they were off again. I decided that the missed molotov cocktail was burning and starting to cause smoke. The party figured this would attract more Goblins, so they left the scene and returned to the entrance, where they waited until they saw a larger party of Goblins exiting the cave to investigate the fire. They figured that this would be the lion's share of the Goblin warren's defenses, so they snuck around and again managed to stealthily take down the guards with their bows. According to the adventure, there are no light sources in the cave. I felt, however, that since the players were outnumbered, didn't have Darkvision, and were doing so well with their whole stealth/infiltration thing, that I wasn't going to punish them by having them haul around a lantern/torch so as to announce their presence to everyone. I instead decided to describe the interior of the warren as having lit torches here and there. They continued their stealthy approach. They entered the Goblin warren and immediately decided to avoid the room with all the noisy wolves and the seemingly steep and forbidding incline. They decided to continue around the bend until they reached the bridge, where they once again managed to notice and take out another guard at range before he even knew they were there. They made their way around to the Goblin's den area, where only two Goblins were guarding Sildar instead of 6- the others having left to investigate the mysterious fire. They dispatched the remaining Guard and freed Sildar. This fight went pretty bad (lots of unlucky rolls) and I saw there was a nasty boss battle coming up, so I decided that Sildar was a Cleric and would follow the party as a healer DMNPC- although he would be stripped of all his gear, armor, and weapons, which were being held in the boss's room. When Sildar explained that the Dwarf they were looking for wasn't in the warren and had been moved to ANOTHER location, the players did seem to get a little exasperated. Nevertheless, they decided it'd be a good idea to take down this Bugbear leader so he wouldn't bug the town any more. With Sildar as their guide, they found the flimsy wooden door (I had put there to give them a chance to spy some more) to the boss's chambers. The Fighter player wasted very little time in anoncing, "I bash down the door" and rolled a 24 for his strength check. I decided that he not only bashed down the door, but he also struck down a Goblin who just happened to be on the other side- so as to remove at least one obstacle from what I presumed would be a difficult fight. And man was it nasty. The party lost initiative. The Bugbear leader and his wolf ganged up on the Fighter and the remaining Goblin scquared up with the Rogue. The Bugbear and Goblin kept mising, but the wolf was on fire. It rolled high for hit and damage and in two rounds, he had the Fighter at -2 HP. They managed to kill the wolf and according to the adventure... the Bugbear runs when his wolf dies. While I thought it was rather silly, I was also kind of thankful for that, as I doubt they would survived the encounter. The Bugbear turn and fled, followed by his Goblin lackey. The party did not give chase, but instead let out a collective sigh of relief. They decided it would be best to gather whatever they could before the remaining Goblins returned. I decided that the Goblins had stolen some provisions, which included lots of oil- much to the Fighter's delight. They were also able to grab Sildar's gear. On their way out, the Fighter insisted on using the last molotov cocktail and his survival skill to fashion some sort of "fire trap" near the entrance of the cave. Before I could say anything, he had rolled a 23 on his check. No way I could deny him. As the party snuck away in the night, they were treated to the sound of fireballs going up and screeching Goblins.
#9 OrwellianHaggis Jul 07, 2014 0:29:04	Good write up, Alex.
#10 pukunui Jul 07, 2014 4:08:56	LordArioch1 wrote:
#11 CelticPaladin Jul 07, 2014 5:03:43	Alex_ wrote:
#12 Gnarl Jul 07, 2014 6:13:03	@Alex: This is impressive. The party of 2 (or 3 with the NPC) managed to survive in an adventure designed for 4-5 players? Or did you reduce the number of critters? Anyways, thanks for the feedback. But ouch, a bugbear, a wolf and goblins against a group of level 1 PCs sounds scary.
#13 LordArioch1 Jul 07, 2014 8:14:19	Sorry again for the poorly written late night game blog. I just wanted to spit it all out while it was semi fresh in my mind. The three of us experienced players debated a lot of the night after the session. The chimney climb plus stealth checks at the top for the whole party was deemed next to impossible to accomplish. Thanks for the posts explaining how some of u managed the climb. My DM basically told me there was nothing to tie the rope to as my elf fighter passed the athletics check and stealth check at the top. I argued I could hide around the one boulder to the north and brace myself and feet on the floor and have the rest climb up. He told me the monsters would see the rope and the climbers would have to pass stealth checks. I then said we had no chance of success because the dwarf was in chainmail(auto disadvantage). I am still struggling with the whole skill thing. It seems to me that our limited proficient skills and low bonuses for seemingly the course of the next bunch of levels are going to lead to a ton of failures. I can't see a way of improving them enough to get to a semi confident state for my character where I won't feel totally scared to try something. Has anyone else encountered this? Plus 4 in athletics or stealth is not enough even for the next few levels to believe your character has a decent shot of passing the roll. Anyway thanks again for your posts and replies. It is really helpful. I do love 5e and so does my group we just struggling with the difficulty of skill checks. I will post my findings after we clear the cave this weekend in session two or at least die trying to do so!
#14 Gnarl Jul 07, 2014 8:26:18	LordArioch1 wrote:
#15 Alex_ Jul 07, 2014 8:52:52	CelticPaladin wrote:
#16 Alex_ Jul 07, 2014 9:07:57	Gnarl wrote:
#17 Swede1985 Jul 07, 2014 10:33:41	@LordArioch1: Ah. The halfling rogue in my party just looped rope around the stalagmite immediately next to the chimney. As a DM I wasnt too harsh on them. Made the goblins and bugbears arguing and carrying on about the ambush party that hadnt returned. Since they paying attention I gave the party advantage on stealth checks. The Fighter's clanking armor alerted the room but most of the party was up by then.
#18 Awesomeocalypse Jul 07, 2014 11:58:19	I haven't had a chance to run this yet, but reading it I really like the look of it. It seems to walk a nice line between offering a "plot" with enough hooks that more passive players and newer DM's shouldn't ever feel lost, but with enough room for improv and going :"off-script" to allow for more creative and experienced players to do their own thing without feeling constricted or railroaded. If the PC's decide to pose as new recruits of the Bandits to infiltrate their hideout rather than simply fighting their way in, for example, there are suggestions for that. In general advice on how to play monsters and NPC's both in and out of combat seems consistently useful without being overwhelming. The "Wild West tropes in a Fantasy setting" provides an immediate tonal hook for both players and DM to latch onto. Even if you've never played D&D before, there's a good chance you have some idea of the types of personalities likely to show up in a frontier mining town, just from the frequency it appears in Westerns, which makes it easy to roleplay on the fly. A lot of effort is put into giving players opportunities to begin establishing their place in the world. Representatives of different factions appear, eager to offer work or a place in their ranks. By the end, the players have earned a very solid home base of operations--ownership of a ruined castle and part ownership of a mine, and likely good relationships with the locals as well. This means that rather than feeling like a murderhobo oneshot, where the players simply help out and move on, it can instead serve to ground the players in the world and give them a place to invest in over time. Building a stronghold is a time honored D&D tradition, and I like this approach to it, where rather than simply being an ad-hoc purchase made at high levels, its something PC's can start working on early and build up over time as they become more successful and attract more followers. The world is well fleshed out. The +1 items players can find have cool details and effects, like an Axe that deals maximum damage against plants. There's history here, if players are curious about it. The rooms almost all have interesting details that suggest a larger "logic" to the world. This feels like a real place, not just a series of encounters to teach PC's the system.
#19 Thalion94518 Jul 07, 2014 13:01:11	Alex_ wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Guest855761860

Jul 06, 2014 21:38:51

Spoilers, man! Delete the spoilers!!!

LordArioch1

Jul 06, 2014 21:43:02

So we played tonight for the first time. Two of us rolled up new characters..Wood Elf Fighter (archer style), and high elf wizard...the other two players were new to the game and used the pregen rogue and cleric...So we had some fun roleplaying figuring out why we were all together and where we going...Our DM is very experienced and blended some of the start MInes hooks with some of his own based on our backgrounds. Basically the 4 of us were bring some goods to Phendelver for the pregen dwarfs cousins (i think) SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO SPOIL ANYTHING!!!

We headed down the road as group and came upon the two dead horses with arrows in them...We immediately thought it was an ambush and the rogue went up ahead to scout it out...successful sneak check to hide in the brushes...The dwarf and elf fighter rode in the front of the wagon carefully approaching the horses...Elf fighter was scanning both sides of the brush not noticing anything because he rolled horrible perception checks...The dwarf gets out of the cart to check on the horses and motions for the elf fighter to join him to help push the horses out of the way as they were blocking the wagon path...The elf fighter joins the dwarf as the elf wizard gets out and moves along side the wagon to look at both sides of the road for an ambush...He failed his perception check as well...Needless to say we got ambushed...Two arrows flew from above on the right side of the road hitting their mark and dealing 5 dmg to the dwarf and elf wizard...Two goblins that were hiding just to the side of the road in the bush jumped out and slashed at the dwarf and the elf fighter in leather armor. The dwarf was hit again taking 5 dmg bringing him to 1 hp. The melee goblin missed the elf fighter. The surprise round ended with the dwarf cleric almost dead and the fighter at 7hps...We rolled initative with 3 horrible rolls and the rogue beating the goblins...The rogue took out his shortbow and sneak attacked one of the goblin archers doing enough dmg in one arrow with sneak attack to take him out...Advantage reallly helped out!!! (they had a little bit of cover on the ridge or something i cant remember) Then the remaining goblin archer shot and hit the elf wizard killing him...well knocking him unconscious ...we had to stop and read the rules about death and dying...so we figured the 3 successes and 3 death saves thing after some reading...The two melee goblins then attacked the dwarf cleric and elf fighter...the dwarf cleric is the pregen one with an 18 AC and the elf fighter had a 15 ac(leather armor) The melee goblin hit the dwarf for 6 dmg knocking him unconscious dropping him ( we now understood death and dying) the other goblin missed the elf fighter... So it was our turns and the elf fighter took out his two scimitars and rolled 2 times not totaling above 12 and missed both attacks...the rogue took out the one of the melee goblins because he was 5 ft from an ally so his sneak attack shot killed it... So round two of iniative had 2 of our party unconscious and 2 goblins dead...We managed to take out the goblins only because the wizard was able to roll a perfect 20 giving him 1 hp and he cast sleep on the remaining 2 goblins...Sorry if i'm skipping ahead... We questioned the goblin after we tied him up and the wizard cast comprehend languages we bribed him with gold and he told us about the the cave of the secret path to the side and the two traps on it and the ambush at the cave entrance...The two experienced players couldnt believe how hard the very first fight was..We also rolled horrible while the DM rolled awesome...but it was almost a TPK on the VERY FIRST COMBAT OF 5E...goblins have a good ac and do decent dmg...Anyway we were failing perception rolls, survival rolls(on the path)...After talking to the captured goblin who was our new friend after we gave him 5 gold, he looked after our wagon and ratted out his entire cave to us( was some fun long roleplaying we did) We made it to the mouth of the cave where the ambushing goblins were,,...up on top of these boards that were on top of some thorny brush on the right side of the cave...failing our stealth checks the elf fighter and halfing rogue approached the the two lookout goblins...the DM ruled that the river was loud enough they didnt hear us despite the crappy stealth checks.. The lookouts had cover and we argued about whether we should shoot them with our bows or not...because if we missed they would be alerted and do god knows what to alert the rest of the goblins that we were there..Well the gods were with the two of us and we shot true and killed both of them with our arrows....We called out to the rest of the group on the other side of the river and they came across to meet us and we proceeded into the cave...We wanted the rogue to scout ahead but it was pitch black and halflings dont have darkvision so he was a useless scout so the elf fighter went ahead and noticed 2 wolves chained in a room..the elf fighter reported back to the party that 2 wolves were just ahead in a room chained to the wall and looked hungry...We decided that the elf fighter who had +4 animal handling would feed the wolves some rations from our packs and try and soothe the wolves...Rolling successfully the wolves sat down contentedly eating...we then searched the area and found an old chimney heading up to a room above about 30 ft...it was here where our adventuring hit another major debate 1 hour long to be exact...here was the problem...we had low athletics skills to climb up and see what was up there but the elf fighter made it up rolling a 17..he had to make another stealth check at the top to avoid some nasty beast some goblins and 2 wolves in a storeroom of some kind...There was nothing to tie his rope to to let the rest of the party up so he climbed back down succeeding on another athletics check but faling his stealth check...we argued a bit about all the rolling going on and things got a bit heated because we knew he was going to roll crappy soon or later with all the rolls needed...We ended up calling it a night at this chimney because we spent one hour discussing how we could all get up quietly without falling and attack the group...it was decided after discussing this that the party as it consited would almost have no chance of successfully making it to the top to attack..and we were kind of annoyed and fed up ...two of us experienced members were discussing how many skill checks we had to do this night and how hard it was to succeed...The halfling rogue felt useless in the cave being the only member without darkvision...(carrying a torch or light source would alert everything in the cave we were coming so he wasnt going to be scouting anytime soon...I was playing the elf fighter and i felt my limited skills and knowing after reading the rules that they were not going to improve that much(the ones i actually had proficiency in nevermind the non proficient ones almost half had a zero in the box because of poor stats or no proficiency...All in all i found the playthrough very difficult and in almost every situation I thought there was a real good chance of dying or failing miserably...I'm sorry for the writing style...I just got home from the session and felt i needed to share with others to see if anyone else shared our difficulty with the very first game of 5e...

The DM and the 2 of us that actually played dnd since 1e discussed the game itself after our session talking about how a brand new group of players could even survive getting into the cave at all.. The intial ambush relied on knowing that it was an actual ambush which we did and then succeeding on perception rolls to do something about it which we didnt... The goblins getting a surprise round and then winning iniative almost wiped out our party ! Killing two of us before they could even act! The DM said he rolled amazing rolls and even felt sorry for us and held back a bit he said or we would have all died...i kept saying how would a beginning group even survive?? I felt the skill checks, which seemed hard and knowing they arent realy going to get better caused me to feel nervous about anything i did...I didnt have the heroic sense of adventure after the first fight and walk through to the cave and the chimney scouting had me wondering if i was going to die during the climb, at the top and the trip back down to tell the others...We are playing again this friday night and I think I'm the one feeling so non-heroic and scared to try anything because i know i have a very good chance of failure...The skills are what is causing this apprehension...The DCs for them which seem low on paper...10 or 15 seem very hard for a first level character and too swingy...Rolling a twenty too many times tonight where literally it felt like if i failed the roll I was dead or causing the party instant doom!

Once again sorry for this poorly written post about our first adventure...I'm cautiously optimistic for our next session and I know I have to get over my feelings of utter hopelessness and making checks and get back to the FUN of the game... i just didn't feel that JOY of adventure like when i was 12 years old playing 1e, probably because of the damn rules bogging me down as a 40yr old gamer and causing me to question every step of the adventure in a doomy fashion.

Please share your thoughts on your first session of the adventure.

Thanks

LFK

Jul 06, 2014 22:24:53

1) Paragraphs

2) Impressions >>> Play-by-play.

Swede1985

Jul 06, 2014 23:21:01

I was DMing the first session of the playtest and my players had a great time. The ambush did almost knock out the Cleric, but the wizard casted Sleep at the beginning of combat nullifying half the goblins. The party then rushed the other two. As for the cave, they did the chimney as well, and managed to make it up by helping each other and using rope once they got to the top. I think one thing to keep in mind is that the game can be rather deadly at first level, but the xp to second level is only 300, which everyone should get by the end of Cragmaw Cave; Second Level is huge - an additional spell slot for the Wizard, an Action Surge for the fighters, a Bonus Action for the Rogue, and more hit points for everyone. Of course, it also sounds like the dice just weren't rolling great for you guys.

OrwellianHaggis

Jul 06, 2014 23:31:33

That sounds like a really unlucky first session for your players.

Chin up, not every game will go so poorly. It doesn't sound like the players made any unwise choices or anything, just sounds like bad dice.

LFK

Jul 06, 2014 23:38:04

OrwellianHaggis wrote:

Alex_

Jul 06, 2014 23:56:20

I also ran the first part of this adventure today. I got the starter kit with the intention of teaching my wife who wasn't so intimately familiar with pre-4E D&D the system. An interested third party came by and we cnvinced him to join us. He admitted that he had never actually played any edition of D&D before.

I explained character creation and how the classes and how they worked. They wanted to get right into the game, so they used the pregen characters. My wife selected the Halfling Rogue- dubbing her self Verna Tealleaf. The other guy chose the Fighter with the Folk Hero background- whom he immediately named Bob because he couldn't think of anything else at the moment.

We didn't use a map, minis, or anything. All theater of the mind.

Details of the session

I used the basic introduction. The pair had been hired to escort the caravan to the town. I had them roll perception checks, and they rolled very high, so I gave them the option of seeing "something" laying in the road off in the distance.

They immediately became very wary. After a little debate and failed attempts to get one of the NPCs to go in their stead, my wife decided to sneak ahead to scout. She rolled incredibly well and was able to locate two of the Goblin ambushers without being detected herself. She snuck back and informed the Fighter, and they decided that they would try to ambush their would be ambushers. While the Rogue again rolled well for her Stealth check, the Fighter rolled poorly, and was immediately fired upon by the Goblins as he approached.

Initiative saw the Rogue go first, followed by the Fighter, then the Goblins. The Rogue had successfully hidden, giving her advantage on her attack rolls, as well as sneak attack damage. She took down one of the Goblins. The Fighter drew his sword and rushed the other one, takin it down as well. On the second turn, they took down the third in one hit. They took to the combat system very qickly and both players were really pleased with themselves.

I had the remaining Goblin- who just saw his allies dispatched so quickly- surrender. The Rogue wanted to interrogate him. The Fighter wanted to execute him. They did one, then the other, and put the heads of all the Goblins on pikes along the road to serve as warnings for any other would-be highway bandits. During the interrogation, the Goblin pretty much told them everything they needed to know about the kidnapped Dwarf and his Human buddy, the general location of their lair, and the even the name of Klarg (who I renamed Grog because I forgot Klarg's name). The pair decided that it would be best to ignore all that, as their main job was to ensure that the caravan got to its destination intact as quickly as possible. No delays.

They escorted the caravan to the town's inn without further incident. Of course, when they got there, everyone started asking where the Dwarf they were supposed to meet was. The party seemed reluctant to go back out and investigate the ambush site- instead believing that they could learn more inside the town. The Rogue made note of the fact that her character sheet mentioned her having an aunt in the area. I hadn't read that part of the adventure, so it kind of caught me off guard. I went with it though, and the party seemed to enjoy the character I whipped up: an expy of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies, who guarded her humble farm (and dozen kids) with a loaded crossbow she kept on the front porch. There was some roleplaying- during which time it was once again explained that the Dwarf they were looking for had wandered out of the town and never returned- and the paty decided to spend the night.

When morning came, the players still hadn't pieced together that the ambush site and the Dwarf they were looking for were related. So they went back to the tavern and started asking questions in and effort to learn his whereabouts. Again, they were informed by an NPCs that Goblins in the area had been raiding travellers, and that tis was likely the explenation for their missing Dwarven friend. They still seemed to enjoy talking to random NPCs, as I had a habit of giving them ridiculous accents and mannerisms. The sessions started getting sidetracked with jokes before I got everyone back on task.

They (finally) decided to go back and actually investigate the site of the ambush, only to find that the heads had been removed. With some Investigate, Perception, and Survival rolls, they were able to figure out how the earlier ambush had taken place, but that after their skirmish, aother Goblin patrol had come through, found their decapitated comrades, and made an attempt to clean up the embarassing mess. They found the trail the Goblins had and got all the way to their base- avoiding all the traps along the way.

When they saw the entrance for the cave, they were very cautious. Once again, the Rogue scouted ahead and was able to spy the two Goblin guards without them being any the wiser. The pair decided they would wait out the afternoon and try to strike under cover of night- my pointing out that Goblins had night vision did not deter them. While they waited, the Fighter decided he would use the Rogue's oil and some flasks they had purchased in order to make Molotov Cocktails.

While they were waiting, I had a pair of Goblins begin to move down the trail. The pair saw them coming and stalked them until they were some distance away from the entrance of the cave (really good Stealth checks) before attacking. Both sides decided to take cover behind trees and exchange bow fire. Lots of misses. The Fighter player became so annoyed that he decided to lob one of his Molotov Cocktails, which I ruled would be treated like Alchemist Fire (non-proficient ranged attack against an AC of 10, targeting the general area the Goblins were in. 1d6 fire damage, and 1d6 damage every round unless you spent an action to put out the flames). He missed and decided to save the other one for later.

They eventually took out the Goblins, but the Fighter was down to 2 HP. The player started to bemoan the party's lack of a healer, when he noticed the Second Wind ability on his character sheet. He used it, rolled max HP, and they were off again.

I decided that the missed molotov cocktail was burning and starting to cause smoke. The party figured this would attract more Goblins, so they left the scene and returned to the entrance, where they waited until they saw a larger party of Goblins exiting the cave to investigate the fire. They figured that this would be the lion's share of the Goblin warren's defenses, so they snuck around and again managed to stealthily take down the guards with their bows.

According to the adventure, there are no light sources in the cave. I felt, however, that since the players were outnumbered, didn't have Darkvision, and were doing so well with their whole stealth/infiltration thing, that I wasn't going to punish them by having them haul around a lantern/torch so as to announce their presence to everyone. I instead decided to describe the interior of the warren as having lit torches here and there. They continued their stealthy approach.

They entered the Goblin warren and immediately decided to avoid the room with all the noisy wolves and the seemingly steep and forbidding incline. They decided to continue around the bend until they reached the bridge, where they once again managed to notice and take out another guard at range before he even knew they were there.

They made their way around to the Goblin's den area, where only two Goblins were guarding Sildar instead of 6- the others having left to investigate the mysterious fire. They dispatched the remaining Guard and freed Sildar. This fight went pretty bad (lots of unlucky rolls) and I saw there was a nasty boss battle coming up, so I decided that Sildar was a Cleric and would follow the party as a healer DMNPC- although he would be stripped of all his gear, armor, and weapons, which were being held in the boss's room.

When Sildar explained that the Dwarf they were looking for wasn't in the warren and had been moved to ANOTHER location, the players did seem to get a little exasperated. Nevertheless, they decided it'd be a good idea to take down this Bugbear leader so he wouldn't bug the town any more.

With Sildar as their guide, they found the flimsy wooden door (I had put there to give them a chance to spy some more) to the boss's chambers. The Fighter player wasted very little time in anoncing, "I bash down the door" and rolled a 24 for his strength check. I decided that he not only bashed down the door, but he also struck down a Goblin who just happened to be on the other side- so as to remove at least one obstacle from what I presumed would be a difficult fight.

And man was it nasty. The party lost initiative. The Bugbear leader and his wolf ganged up on the Fighter and the remaining Goblin scquared up with the Rogue. The Bugbear and Goblin kept mising, but the wolf was on fire. It rolled high for hit and damage and in two rounds, he had the Fighter at -2 HP. They managed to kill the wolf and according to the adventure... the Bugbear runs when his wolf dies. While I thought it was rather silly, I was also kind of thankful for that, as I doubt they would survived the encounter.

The Bugbear turn and fled, followed by his Goblin lackey. The party did not give chase, but instead let out a collective sigh of relief. They decided it would be best to gather whatever they could before the remaining Goblins returned. I decided that the Goblins had stolen some provisions, which included lots of oil- much to the Fighter's delight. They were also able to grab Sildar's gear.

On their way out, the Fighter insisted on using the last molotov cocktail and his survival skill to fashion some sort of "fire trap" near the entrance of the cave. Before I could say anything, he had rolled a 23 on his check. No way I could deny him. As the party snuck away in the night, they were treated to the sound of fireballs going up and screeching Goblins.

OrwellianHaggis

Jul 07, 2014 0:29:04

Good write up, Alex.

#10

pukunui

Jul 07, 2014 4:08:56

LordArioch1 wrote:

#11

CelticPaladin

Jul 07, 2014 5:03:43

Alex_ wrote:

#12

Gnarl

Jul 07, 2014 6:13:03

@Alex: This is impressive. The party of 2 (or 3 with the NPC) managed to survive in an adventure designed for 4-5 players? Or did you reduce the number of critters? Anyways, thanks for the feedback. But ouch, a bugbear, a wolf and goblins against a group of level 1 PCs sounds scary.

#13

LordArioch1

Jul 07, 2014 8:14:19

Sorry again for the poorly written late night game blog. I just wanted to spit it all out while it was semi fresh in my mind. The three of us experienced players debated a lot of the night after the session. The chimney climb plus stealth checks at the top for the whole party was deemed next to impossible to accomplish. Thanks for the posts explaining how some of u managed the climb. My DM basically told me there was nothing to tie the rope to as my elf fighter passed the athletics check and stealth check at the top. I argued I could hide around the one boulder to the north and brace myself and feet on the floor and have the rest climb up. He told me the monsters would see the rope and the climbers would have to pass stealth checks. I then said we had no chance of success because the dwarf was in chainmail(auto disadvantage). I am still struggling with the whole skill thing. It seems to me that our limited proficient skills and low bonuses for seemingly the course of the next bunch of levels are going to lead to a ton of failures. I can't see a way of improving them enough to get to a semi confident state for my character where I won't feel totally scared to try something. Has anyone else encountered this? Plus 4 in athletics or stealth is not enough even for the next few levels to believe your character has a decent shot of passing the roll. Anyway thanks again for your posts and replies. It is really helpful. I do love 5e and so does my group we just struggling with the difficulty of skill checks. I will post my findings after we clear the cave this weekend in session two or at least die trying to do so!

#14

Gnarl

Jul 07, 2014 8:26:18

LordArioch1 wrote:

#15

Alex_

Jul 07, 2014 8:52:52

CelticPaladin wrote:

#16

Alex_

Jul 07, 2014 9:07:57

Gnarl wrote:

#17

Swede1985

Jul 07, 2014 10:33:41

@LordArioch1: Ah. The halfling rogue in my party just looped rope around the stalagmite immediately next to the chimney. As a DM I wasnt too harsh on them. Made the goblins and bugbears arguing and carrying on about the ambush party that hadnt returned. Since they paying attention I gave the party advantage on stealth checks. The Fighter's clanking armor alerted the room but most of the party was up by then.

#18

Awesomeocalypse

Jul 07, 2014 11:58:19

I haven't had a chance to run this yet, but reading it I really like the look of it.

It seems to walk a nice line between offering a "plot" with enough hooks that more passive players and newer DM's shouldn't ever feel lost, but with enough room for improv and going :"off-script" to allow for more creative and experienced players to do their own thing without feeling constricted or railroaded. If the PC's decide to pose as new recruits of the Bandits to infiltrate their hideout rather than simply fighting their way in, for example, there are suggestions for that.

In general advice on how to play monsters and NPC's both in and out of combat seems consistently useful without being overwhelming.

The "Wild West tropes in a Fantasy setting" provides an immediate tonal hook for both players and DM to latch onto. Even if you've never played D&D before, there's a good chance you have some idea of the types of personalities likely to show up in a frontier mining town, just from the frequency it appears in Westerns, which makes it easy to roleplay on the fly.

A lot of effort is put into giving players opportunities to begin establishing their place in the world. Representatives of different factions appear, eager to offer work or a place in their ranks. By the end, the players have earned a very solid home base of operations--ownership of a ruined castle and part ownership of a mine, and likely good relationships with the locals as well. This means that rather than feeling like a murderhobo oneshot, where the players simply help out and move on, it can instead serve to ground the players in the world and give them a place to invest in over time. Building a stronghold is a time honored D&D tradition, and I like this approach to it, where rather than simply being an ad-hoc purchase made at high levels, its something PC's can start working on early and build up over time as they become more successful and attract more followers.

The world is well fleshed out. The +1 items players can find have cool details and effects, like an Axe that deals maximum damage against plants. There's history here, if players are curious about it. The rooms almost all have interesting details that suggest a larger "logic" to the world. This feels like a real place, not just a series of encounters to teach PC's the system.

#19

Thalion94518

Jul 07, 2014 13:01:11

Alex_ wrote: