Help: first IRL campaign AND I'm teaching newbies

[Jeff the Green]

Over the break I'm going to be running a one-shot for my brothers and cousins. Not only will this be my first time DMing a non-PBP game and first time playing non-PBP for... over 10 years (I feel old :smalleek:), but neither of my cousins have played before and I'm looking for some advice.

We'll start by making characters with significant input from me.

We'll use the elite array for simplicity and consistency, and no prepared casters (and I'll try to steer my cousins away from any full casters).
We'll do mostly core-only, though I may suggest some things like Beguiler, Dread Necro, and Warmage, dungeoncrasher, or feats if they'd fit their character concept.
I'm trimming down my usual house rules but will keep some of the ones that make mundanes more viable like Weapon Finesse having no prereqs and the ones that make bookkeeping simpler like that cross-class skills don't cost double.
We'll start at level 3 to let them have relatively simple characters to begin and then level up after the first encounter.
Finally, they won't die at -10; only if the enemy CDGs them will they actually die.


If needed, I'll throw in a VoP buomman Healer, since I don't expect anyone to want to play a healer and I'd rather not rely on them having the UMD to use wands reliably.

The 'plot' is going to be simple. They're mercenaries hired as guards for a dwarven diplomat who's been assigned to a different city and has to travel through a wilderness. We'll start with a simple fight with some marauding orcs in the night—two warrior 1s, two barbarian 1s, one adept 2, and one bard 1. A fire, camping equipment, and some trees will give them terrain options, and they'll need to try to keep the ambassador (a Marshal 2, but sleepy and in his nightshirt) and his wife (aristocrat 1) and child (no stats) alive.

Once that harrowing encounter is over, they'll reach level 4 and the village of Night Vale, a peaceful community of halflings. Halfling-werecats (i.e. tibbits), to be exact. They notice some odd things like that instead of chicken coops there are dormouse cages and ponds, and an incredible abundance of dairy cows, but otherwise nothing seems off. Until the aristocrat and his family are abducted and brought to the town's 'god', a Cat Sí.

They'll have to fight their way through the villagers who have set up fiendish traps involving red dots, rotten fish, yarn, etc.. (These villagers will almost all be Commoner 1, though there will be a few Expert 1 or 2 thrown in with some alchemical items. They'll be treated like 4e minions, one hit kills them) Probably only two or three encounters here. Finally they'll have to defeat the Cat Sí and his priest and rescue the ambassador.

Anyway, here are my questions:

Does ~5 encounters (depending on how they handle the villagers) sound about right for a day-long one-shot with enough time to build characters?
Is starting at level 3 about right? With no prepared casters they won't have 2nd-level spells until after they level up.
What kind of preparation should I be doing? Obviously stat blocks for each enemy (thankfully the villagers are mostly clones) and maps. What else?
Anything else I need to be wary of DMing for first-timers? They've all played CRPGs (though not D&D-based ones), but none have as much experience or knowledge as I do.
If you have suggestions for the Cat Sí or cat-based traps, hop on over to this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16623382#post16623382) and help me out.


Many, many, many thanks to anyone who can help! Also tuna, lasers, and boxes.

[Corlindale]

I would probably start at level 1 with newbies. Then they get gradual access to their class features and have time to familiarize themselves with everything.

The main drawback with starting at level 1 is that it's possible to get one-shot, but that's less likely to happen with your death houserule.

I also might start with a simpler encounter than one against a full party of orcs with an escort goal thrown in on top. Just keep things simple with something really easy for the first couple of encounters, perhaps leave the party of orcs for when they have a decent basic grasp of combat rules.

Sounds like a cool plot, though - should work well for a beginner adventure.

[Andezzar]

I would not heavy-handedly prohibit prepared casters even if they are Tier 1. They rarely are as problematic as they could be, especially if they are played by newbies.

I actually find sorcerers and bards much more difficult for newbies than wizards or clerics. The player of the sorcerer must select his spells at the beginning (when he is least knowleddgeble of the system and the campaign) and has to stick with them for a very long time. The cleric however gets everything and can changew from day to day. The wizard at least can buy additional spells, if his initial selection proves ineffective.

The elite Array is not much easier than point buy. Especially if you remove the Tier 1 casters, lower ability scores will hurt the mundanes more than the casters you do allow.

[Storm Bringer]

I'd suggest having the "starting" conflict be a single orc assassin, striking in the night before they set off. for two reasons:

1st: it lets them get their "training" fight out of the way in a manner that means they can do as badly or well without major consequence (because they have a nights sleep to heal and regain spells), against a simple, clear threat that minimises their problems while learning the rules (unlike trying to stop half a dozen orcs form snatching the dwarf would).

2nd: it keeps the fight simple for *you*, so that you can get used to running a IRL game as the same time they are.

remember you are managing a stage show of a fight, not trying to win.
I'd suggest not statting out the assassin too much, he's just a punching bag for the players to learn on. he can have as many hp as needed. if the players are bumbling, have him go down at the first hit. If they get their act together quickly, let him soak a few turns of damage before dying. give him a dagger or something not very leathal. when they search his corpse, have them find a really nasty posion or something to "explain" how he planned to kill the dwarf.

this way, they can goof off, get to know what they can do better, and when the band of orcs come over the hill, they have a better idea of what their characters can do (i.e. they know they need to keep the wizard out the way, they know the rogue really hurts when he flanks, etc)


as for running a IRL game, a few hints:

start at first level, to keep everything as simple as can be. DnD can have quite a steep learning curve anyway, don't make it steeper than it needs to be. don't be worried that they are too weak, you the one that controls the things that threatens them. when they are weak, so are their enemys.

for a one day, one shot game, just pre-generate the party to some basic sterotypes (e.g. Big Fighter, Sneaky Thief, Wizard), then let the players pick who they want. it saves *hours* of time, and lets you skip to the game part. if they come back for more, then start thinking about letting them make PCs once they have a base idea about the game and the classes.

before you start, maybe take a few minutes to go though the character sheets with them, explaining what the basic stats are (ie what the difference between Wis and Int is, what HP are, what "1d8+2" damage means and where that comes form) you'll need to go over it all again as the game goes on, but it might help it stick.

Keep you own separate track of your players HP and initiative, and cross reference it with the player when the values change ("the orc hits you for..." *roll*"...6 points of damage, which puts you on 7 hit points correct?"). Not to prevent cheating per se, but so you know who you can safely hit.

Remember to keep some secrecy for you to "fudge" in. anything the players have not directly seen is changeable, and may need to be changed. if their is two doors, and you need the players to clear the rooms behind them in a set order, whichever door they pick first is the room they need to do first. dm screens were invented for a reason.

Don't be afraid to ignore the dice you roll and just decide the outcome of a roll to best suit your needs. still roll the dice, but don't be bond to them.

[Andezzar]

While I agree with starting with an easy fight, I don't think pulling any punches is a good idea, just as cheating by giving the orc more HP than he could have. Or any other type of fudging. If the PCs die, they die. That lesson will help them make better decisions next time.

The DM plays all the NPCs. NPCs have goals, which they will pursue to the best of their abilities. Play them as such, don't coddle the players, but do not start with the most difficult challenges either. A "challenging" encounter (encounter level=party level) is not supposed to be very difficult anyways.

Having an assassin (I assume you mean the job description, not the class, otherwise that orc would be at least CR6) attack after the PCs have prepared is incredibly stupid. An assassin would either attack before they have prepared (or better before they wake) or wait and trail them until they lower their guard again.

Regular forces are much more believable to stumble across the PCs, when neither group is prepared.

If you really want to do single monster vs. party, make it an old orc warrior/fighter/barbarian/whatever that is away from his tribe to seek a good death (I know it is stolen from TES). Maybe even throw a conversation in, showing the players that an encounter need not be solved with violence.

[Ivanhoe]

Anyway, here are my questions:

Does ~5 encounters (depending on how they handle the villagers) sound about right for a day-long one-shot with enough time to build characters?
Is starting at level 3 about right? With no prepared casters they won't have 2nd-level spells until after they level up.
What kind of preparation should I be doing? Obviously stat blocks for each enemy (thankfully the villagers are mostly clones) and maps. What else?
Anything else I need to be wary of DMing for first-timers? They've all played CRPGs (though not D&D-based ones), but none have as much experience or knowledge as I do.
If you have suggestions for the Cat Sí or cat-based traps, hop on over to this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16623382#post16623382) and help me out.


Many, many, many thanks to anyone who can help! Also tuna, lasers, and boxes.

Well, what coincidence -I also just started a thread looking for help in a game with a player with no gaming experience.
General advice: Ask your players what kind of atmosphere/adventure they want. Your plot sounds nice and interesting, but if your players are expecting a dungeon crawl and treasure, and happen to find the kind of your opponents difficult to imagine (for whatever reason), you may end up with less fun than possible!

On your questions:
- 5 encounters should be OK. The level of the encounters you outlined also does not appear to be overwhelming (in particular since there seems to be rest in between).
- the plot that you outlined, I think does not need 2nd level spells - so your players should be fine.
- beyond maps and stat blocks, you could introduce some events and atmospheric stuff (like bad weather/thunderstorm on the way making the orc attack scarier, watch The Village movie or maybe Sleepy Hollow to get a feel for the "feeling that something is not quite right" .
- the diplomat or his wife could fill the role of the healer, saving you one npc to play
- other than what I said, Storm Bringer had plenty of good ideas imo
- the Cat Si I cannot comment on (I do not know this monster), but maybe you could check out the wererat atmosphere/descriptions used in the Fritz Leiber Lankhmar novels. Also, giving it sort of "9 lives" would be nice, making it a recurring villain....

[Afool]

Eh, what you have planned already sounds good.

One piece of advice though. Be ready to improve the hells out of your plan. Because your PCs (unless they are a hells of a lot in synch with you) will do things that you don't plan for.

Things that popped out to me;

The PCs might decide that they want to do something else besides escorting the dwarf. Talking to them OOC to establish the quest beforehand should help prevent any especial amount of "rail road jumping".

If the initial battle goes badly they might attempt to surrender and/or hand over the dwarf and family. Dice fudging has already been mentioned and can help avoid this.

Now, I've seen this before, which is why I bring it up now, but one or more of your players might want to become were-cats for a variety of reasons. I'd suggest making it somewhat obvious that becoming a were-cat (from this particular strain) makes you a permanent thrall of the Cat Si. Might add a 'innocents who cannot be saved' factor to the were-cat halfings.

Just some thoughts (that I meant to send earlier, but got caught up with finals and so had to finish up now).

[Andezzar]

One piece of advice though. Be ready to improve the hells out of your plan. Because your PCs (unless they are a hells of a lot in synch with you) will do things that you don't plan for.So what? Then the story goes in another direction, just be prepared to roll with it.


The PCs might decide that they want to do something else besides escorting the dwarf. Talking to them OOC to establish the quest beforehand should help prevent any especial amount of "rail road jumping".Don't. Rail Roading is bad enough as it is. Being told that you cannot leave the rails beforehand, and thus are being rail roaded is even worse.


If the initial battle goes badly they might attempt to surrender and/or hand over the dwarf and family.So what, if they do? That is a reasonable option.


Dice fudging has already been mentioned and can help avoid this.Why would you want to avoid this? If the PCs screw up they should have to deal with the screw up.


Now, I've seen this before, which is why I bring it up now, but one or more of your players might want to become were-cats for a variety of reasons. I'd suggest making it somewhat obvious that becoming a were-cat (from this particular strain) makes you a permanent thrall of the Cat Si. Might add a 'innocents who cannot be saved' factor to the were-cat halfings.What would be so bad (except for the mechanics) if they became were cats?

[Afool]

So what? Then the story goes in another direction, just be prepared to roll with it.

True, I suppose I meant it as a bit of a reminder as pbp can have a vary different flow than real time gaming.


Don't. Rail Roading is bad enough as it is. Being told that you cannot leave the rails beforehand, and thus are being rail roaded is even worse.

Sorry, "rail road jumping" wasn't what I wanted to say, it was just the only thing that I could think of. Jeff at the very least seems to have a good adventure planned out and if he has the original concept (escorting a dwarven ambassador to location x) introduced to the players before hand, it could help make the start of the adventure go more smoothly.


So what, if they do? That is a reasonable option.

Why would you want to avoid this? If the PCs screw up they should have to deal with the screw up.

True on both accounts, but I would like to think that these new players could have a more heroic first experience than I first did (combat skirmishes that ended in party death each time. We died to goblins and skeletons and orcs and- well I think we only did three skirmishes before trying out my uncle's campaign. Goblin crit my bard to near death with a crossbow.... I'm starting to think I shouldn't run bards, they always seem to die or nearly die the first session I start with them.).


What would be so bad (except for the mechanics) if they became were cats?

Nothing really, just an added complication that could go very hay-wired (example I remember reading had the party enthusiastically become were-rats after spending the session killing were-rats in sewers.).


But yes, you make good points. I suppose I'm being a bit overly cautious.

In any case, I wish you a good game Jeff as well as good luck (you just might need it).