Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Reflections from 9/12/09 DnD Session

There’s a trend of rules interface glitches with the module and standard D&D rules. They aren’t 100% compatible. For some things, it’s minor, such as use of the term ‘bruised’ instead of ‘bloodied.’ For others, it’s potentially more troublesome, such as the rules surrounding pushing there was also a subtle monster design difference for a creature who swallows characters. In the module, swallowed characters could use only melee basic attacks; in similar monsters in the Monster Manual 2, they may also use close burst attacks.

Because that monster got lucky and quickly swallowed 1/3 of the party, the situation seemed potentially dire, especially since the swallowed PC endures ongoing damage, and the only way to escape is by killing the creature. With a larger party, this wouldn’t be so terrible, since the large majority of the fire power is outside of the restriction. In this case, it was a full third of the group’s firepower. When the players panicked a little (mostly the one who’d been swallowed), I panicked a little and quickly lowered the creature’s level by two. I also fudged a die roll when the same creature stunned the other two members of the group in the next round and let the striker off the hook. The players were none the wiser (yay DM screen!). Both were probably the right decisions, but I also think merely reducing the level by one would have been appropriate as well.

I actually like the creature, after the adjustment to allow bursts and will probably add in another next session. Anything with stun affects are risky with small parties, so I’m not certain yet how that encounter will look.

This session included lots of pounding at defenseless things by the party. There was one secret door that they couldn’t unlock (they didn’t find the key, and have no thieving skills), and there was a trapped gelatinous cube at the bottom of a ziggurat. While I wouldn’t want too much of that, it worked out okay. There’s no real reason why they couldn’t pound away at the door and cube, and it allowed the plot to move forward in a relatively realistic way.

Another odd twist about this session resulted from a combination of factors. We had a new player to the group – but probably the most experienced at the table playing a wizard. He appropriately tended to stay in the rear of the small party. There also happened to be several intelligent, sneaky times of monsters this session, so he got picked on more than a little. Now the wizard is out of surges (he was also the one who got swallowed). I really thought his character might die there for awhile, and I didn’t want that to happen; not to a new player.

I’m not entirely happy with the representation of the swamp; there’s something about natural settings that challenge me on the battle map.

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